A New Start
by foxfaceish
Summary: Natsumi thought she was the newest person in the neighborhood. Going on her second year at a new high school she already has two close friends, Kagome and Sango. She tends to keep to herself and can be quiet. But who is this new guy picking on her? OC/IN
1. New Chapter 1

**For some reason, when I edited the chapters (making the football to track and field change) it did not save or update the chapters with the new content. So here I am going back (with a new laptop that has none of the past chapters on it) and re-editing things. So if any of you were wondering why I might not have updated this story, well…this is your answer. Oh, and I am also going to place this little note in the beginning of each of my chapters. That way it will make things easier on you as the reader, and me as the author. **** happy reading!**  
>I started this fan fic YEARS ago and I had recently stumbled across it. I used to have an old account which this first chapter was posted under. I re-read the chapter and read my whole 3 reviews on it and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside so I have decided to give this another go. Let's just say, I edited almost, well close to everything, everything but the story line. Ha ha ha. I have always read fan fics and always wish I could write some (since I always have ideas to do so.) So without further ado. (p.s. I do not own Inuyasha but everyone else in my story I do) :]<p>

_**A New Start**__**  
><strong>__Chapter 1: Another new year, another new start _

It was mid afternoon and the sky was clear and blue, minus having a few wispy clouds that seemed to lazily drift across the sky. August had just finished which meant that Natsumi O'Sullivan had just turned another year older. Now 16 she took a break as she sat outside and started to reflect on things that have happened. In one week would start her second year of living in her new neighborhood, and in a few weeks she would start her junior year in high school. Natsumi was still trying to get used to her neighborhood and all of the people whom inhabited the area. Not to mention she was still trying to get used to people at her school. She only had a few friends, only to name a couple there was Kagome Higurashi and Sango Hongo. The closest of the small few, was the sweet, caring, optimistic and fun loving Kagome. Then in second place was the sporty, down to earth Sango. Just like Kagome, Sango was also very caring and fun loving; she was also a great friend to have. Natsumi only wished that she was close to someone as Kagome was to Sango at her new school. But that happens when you move during high school life, especially after your whole group of friends turn their backs on you after so many years of being friends. She went back to mowing the lawn and raking up the cuttings in the front lawn as she started to think.  
><em><strong>I sometimes wish I was still at my old school, even if people hated me. It was weird, within the last year almost all of my friends started to betray me. What did I do? Did I become a major stuck up bitch? Did I accidentally step on people's feelings? Ugh…I just really wish I knew what I did wrong! The only thing that really changed, other than a new school year was the three or four transfer students. Kouga, he was really cute, but once I became friends with Ayame I could not let myself fall for him. Then that weirdo Naraku…I could tell that he had some issues, but I just accepted him, just like everyone else. Heck, I was the one who introduced Kouga and those two to my group. <strong>_Natsumi sighed solemnly at herself as she kept working, by now she was just about done, she only had to put things away now. _**I just miss my old friends…We were like a huge family…  
><strong>_Natsumi looked down her street as her thoughts faded away. There were only a few two story houses on their street, and Natsumi's and the neighbor's houses were the only two that were next to each other. In the upstairs part of her house there was only her bedroom, bathroom and a library/reading room that had a balcony attached to the back side of the house. Her bathroom was in the back part of the upper stairs and the reading room and her bedroom each took up half of the remaining room, except for where the stair case was. Her bedroom and bathroom windows faced their two story neighbor, where the reading room had the other side so the room would be flooded with sunlight all through the day. However she could not say anything about her neighbor's house and how their upstairs layout was. They had always kept those windows shut and curtains drawn, quite creepy if you asked her.

It was the beginning of September now, Natsumi still sitting on her front porch enjoying the warm mid afternoon weather while listening to her latest CD she bought and eating a popsicle. It had been a while since she kicked off her shoes after finishing up with some yard work and Natsumi had her legs over the edge and was swinging them back and forth. Humming along to the song that was playing behind her, she noticed some commotion going on in the house next door. She saw her neighbors start to pile out boxes and furniture out on the front lawn. _"hmmm, I wonder if they are painting…"_ She thought but soon corrected herself when she saw the moving truck pull up. _"Aww shucks, and I was just starting to get to know the Johnson's, their little daughter is so cute and not to mention very smart."_ After finishing up her popsicle she got up and slowly made way to the fence that was dividing the lawns apart. She watched for a while as both the young Mr. and Mrs. Johnson kept loading things up in the truck.

"Hey Larry," Natsumi called out to the young Mr. with a wave. He acknowledged her with a faint 'hey' and a smile. He walked over to the other side of the fence to talk to Natsumi. "I didn't know that you guys were planning on moving." Larry smiled sadly and looked back at his house. His eyes looking through one of the windows watching his wife pick up a few things and stuff them in boxes while talking to their daughter. He let out a happy yet sad sigh then turned his attention back towards Natsumi.  
>"Yeah," he reached up across his chest to scratch the top of his shoulder but lazily just kept it hanging there. "Julie's mother isn't doing too well so we decided that we should try moving a bit closer to her in case she needed any help. And we thought it would be better now than later so Emma could also spend some more time with her Grandmother." There was a little girl's squeal and laughter coming through front door of the house, as if it was on cue, and it put a smile on Larry's face.<br>"Oh well I'm sorry to hear that her mother isn't doing well. It must be tough for her." She paused for a moment; it was Natsumi's turn to look towards the house before continuing. "If there is anything that you need help with, you know where I am." She laughed nervously somehow becoming very awkward. That was definitely one thing that would never fail about Natsumi. She always managed to make things awkward, no matter how hard she tried. Larry smiled kindly at her and shook his head.  
>"I am afraid that we are just about done here. We already have the majority of all of our stuff at our new place; we just rented the truck today to load the final boxes and all of the larger pieces of furniture that we could not fit into our cars. But thanks, we really appreciate it."<p>

The barefooted girl nodded and they exchanged brief goodbyes and well wishes before she turned around and headed back to the center of her yard where she finished putting away all of the tools and belongings before heading back into her house.

The remaining days of summer vacation went by like a tick of a clock and Natsumi awoke on the first day of school not too sure if she was excited for another year of school to start. She got up early and decided to do her morning stretches while listening to a mixed CD that she had put together of all of her favorite songs. And just like how it said mixed CD on the disk, it really was. The songs went from techno to metal with some indie, pop and rock in between. After her stretches she went and took a shower continuing her morning routines. After putting on a shirt and shorts with a pair all black convers, she shut all of her windows halfway because she thought that the air at night was getting a little bit too chilly for her, but she still wanted the fresh air to come in. She still wasn't quite ready for her windows to be closed fully. She hesitated for a little after as her thoughts unexpectedly caught her thinking of her past friends. _**Wow, just to think all of us had like a secret language with just our windows. Well, the few of us who had windows facing the street or in places that were easy to see.**_ Natsumi smiled faintly as she remembered a particular time. _**Jonathan and her had been texting that night then all of a sudden in one of his responses he just says 'going out for a bit, may not text.' Bummed she started to replay that nights earlier events through her mind. She and her parents had gotten into a fight, Natsumi now realized it was literally over nothing and was really immature of her to act how she was acting and she felt guilty about it. She really had the mother of all teenage temper tantrums. All her parents were trying to tell her was her cousin from a different state and her husband were coming down. They were going to be bringing their kids too. Natsumi never really liked them and her parents had asked her to try to stay home so she could visit. That was when Natsumi started to act really immaturely. She sat down in her comfy chair she kept next to the window. She groaned and pulled her legs up into her chest and she rested her head on top of her knees. Her arm went over to her window to close it a little so it was halfway. Then out of the blue Jonathan popped up right outside her window asking her what was up. He nearly scared the living daylights out of her. He opened up her window and climbed in. He was always really caring, and was always concerned about me. **_"He always did make me feel important…" She said out loud to no one in particular. She then turned around and headed downstairs for breakfast.

After she had a quick breakfast with her mother, she got up and headed towards the door. But before she opened it she stood and looked herself over once more in the mirror. Her blond hair was straight and not frizzy and acting up, her day was already starting off well, that was good considering it was the first day back to school. She looked at herself in the eyes, today they were ice blue, _"it must be because I am wearing white today"_ she thought to herself as she looked down at her white shirt making sure that one, her bra wasn't showing through and two to make sure she didn't spill anything on it. She then took another step closer to the mirror peering into it, lifting up her Ray-Ban glasses. Her mind wandered back in thought again when her attention got brought to her glasses.  
><em><strong>They used to belong to Jonathan's older brother. Whenever she would go over to his house and visit she would always take them, it would not matter whether he was sleeping or awake. He would always tease her and say that if she keeps wearing his glasses she is going to end up needing glasses for herself. In return she would just roll her eyes and laugh. She could never look directly through the lenses without getting a headache, but none the less, they were always on her face. Then one day she was over at Jonathan's house but he wasn't in she hung out with his brother. She was pouting because she was going to have to get glasses soon. Phillip just laughed at her 'I told you so, you were going to need glasses because you kept stealing mine. You are just lucky that my prescription isn't that strong.' He smiled down at her and she just rolled her eyes again and continued to pout. 'That isn't very nice...' He chuckled back at her and shook his head. 'Well, hey, I'll tell you what. You can have my glasses, and just get new lenses put in.' Natsumi was shocked, 'what do you mean? Don't you need them for yourself?' Phillip smiled and leaned in closer with a wink causing Natsumi to blush slightly. Phillip was probably Natsumi's first crush, he was that older brother that everyone liked, but Phillip only tolerated Natsumi, and he was always able to get her to lose her cool at times like that, 'I won't anymore. I am getting the corrective laser surgery, so I won't need glasses anymore. Plus, I think you looked better in those than I ever did.' Natsumi blushed for a second. 'w-well, for the record, they never did look horrible on you.' She pushed up his glasses higher on her nose and looked up at him through the lenses, while sitting in her spot on his bed. He was sitting in his desk chair backwards, pulled up to his bed. Her eyes instantly crossed and she got dizzy for a second. Phillip placed a hand on her shoulder to help steady her. She had lowered his glasses again so she wouldn't look through the lenses again. He just chuckled at her. <strong>_Natsumi blushed while she was reminiscing, she quickly shut off that train of thought and quickly finished checking her eyeliner.

She re-adjusted her glasses, sometimes she wished she didn't have to rely on glasses or contacts, some days they gave her the worst headaches, but now, without them she would almost be as blind as a bat, but her glasses always reminded her of happier times so she was fine with it. She stepped out the door and felt her cheeks, she could feel her cheeks warm to the touch. She shook her head and sighed "What am I doing? I forgot my stuff." She heaved a sigh and grabbed her backpack after petting her little shi-tzu fur ball puppy on the head. That little fuzz ball was probably the thing that she held the closest to her. That little doggie knew all sorts of her secrets and dreams that no one else seemed to really listen to now a days.  
>"Bye bye Chunky, I will be back after 3 or so. Mama has to head to school again." The small dog sat down and tilted her head to the side looking very forlorn and sad. Natsumi then headed out the front door and started walking to school.<p>

School for Natsumi was a fun experience, well at times. She enjoyed all of her computer, science and art classes. It was odd because those were the only three classes that she really excelled at. That was where Kagome and Sango would help her sometimes. Kagome was crazy into history and most of the time she was studying medicine. Sango was also really into sports, she wasn't horrible at math as well, she also enjoyed other random studies. Natsumi always tried her best and tried to excel in all of her classes, but no matter what she never got above a 'B'. As she walked to school she wondered who she was going to have for homeroom and for her other classes. She hoped she could be a teacher's aid for her math teacher again this year. Despite it being one of her most hated and hardest classes, she enjoyed the fact that she was friends with the teacher. Last year she was a TA and since Natsumi always finished the tasks that the teacher asked her to finish early, so she always had extra time to study or finish her homework. Also when the teacher, Ms. Lemmings, had the class doing busy work, she would help the student with her studies so it was a lot like having a private tutor.

She arrived at school and went to find where she was supposed to go for homeroom. It was a teacher that she had never heard of before. _"Last name Kaede"_ she thought to herself. She shrugged her shoulders and went to the room designated for the class and waited in a random seat near the back and waited for school to resume. During the period, she took a look at her schedule and she found out that she had this same teacher for math. Natsumi grumbled to herself a little, _"there goes the extra study and tutoring for me."_ She continued to glance down and noticed that she was not a TA this year, instead it said manager. _"What? Manager? Manager of what…"_ Her eyes followed the line and noticed that it said Varsity Track and Field on it. Her eyes went wide with astonishment. _"WHAT? Varsity track manager? I don't ever remember signing up for this! How did this even happen? I don't even know anything about track and field…"_ The shocked girl heaved a sigh and shrugged thinking what has happened had happened. She will just wait the day out and see what it is all about, and hoping that it was some sort of mistake. If it wasn't, hopefully she didn't need to do anything but keep the times and role or something ridiculously simple.

During lunch she sent a text to Kagome wondering where she was, but before she got a reply she headed to the library. She hoped that the school's library had received any new books over the summer break. Echoes of students in the quad drifted into the library but it was quiet enough that students could still study. She came across a few students lying down on the floor catching a nap before lunch time was over. She couldn't help but let out a small laugh. There were definitely some days where she did that, especially the nights where she couldn't stop reading a book or couldn't stop watching an anime that was really holding her interest. She rounded a corner and almost stepped on another student snoozing on the ground who was taking up the whole walkway. She was in mid step when her phone went off. A clip from a favorite song of hers started to echo and play loudly. It startled the snoozer first with a jolt and then a yell, and that started a whole chain reaction. In response to him she became startled. She lost her balance and stumbled back into the bookshelf. Her ears deafened to all sound but to herself hitting the bookshelf and the books falling. Sliding down to the floor and a few books landing on her arms she held above her head and ending up landing in her lap and a couple on his legs.

"Ouch" she said quietly to herself her eyes still closed almost as if she was afraid that if she opened them, more books would fall. Something wiggled under her legs and then she heard some unhappy words and grumbles coming from the mysterious snoozer. She opened up one eye trying to see if they were awake or still snoozing. She noticed a giant fuzzy blob sitting up in front of her, she started to look for her glasses, and hopefully they just landed in her lap or on top of the books. She heard a few more angry words and she instantly started to apologize. There was just a 'Keh' and she felt herself being dragged up by a very fuzzy yet tan arm. She thanked the blob but started to bend down to try to find her glasses when that same arm stopped her by tapping her arm while holding out her glasses. "Oh thank you and umm I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you up. I was just trying to walk past." She slipped her glasses on and she was finally able to see the royally pissed off face that was in front of her. Except in order to do so, she had to look up to actually see it directly in his face. He had dark eyes and long black hair; he was a good two heads taller than she was. Normally, she could not stand guys with long hair, but for him it suited him. He didn't look bad with it, he almost reminded her of Kouga because he too had dark long hair. She could only guess that she came up to a little under her chin. His face was tan and his body was broad and she could tell that he wasn't scrawny. He definitely was not bad looking in her eyes. She started to get slightly flustered and her cheeks began to flush a shade of pink, she needed a distraction so she instantly bent down to start picking up the books. Only, she moved too quickly and she got a lot of blood rushing to her head causing her to hold one side of her head where a corner of a book had managed to get her. She hissed in pain under her breath but continued to pick up the books.  
>"Hey!" That same arm came towards her again but this time it grabbed her arm to lift her up and turn her to face him. "Are you alright? Do you think you need to go get checked out?" He peered closer to Natsumi making her blush even more. Even with her past experiences with guys, she still wasn't used to guys getting so close to her, physically and personally.<br>She managed to smile shyly and nodded, "Yeah, thanks." She held up a hand in protest, "I'm fine, and no...I don't need to get checked out." She smiled weakly to herself due to the awkward words.  
>"Are you sure you don't need your head checked? 'Cause I think you do, I mean, c'mon, what type of a person doesn't turn their phones on silent when in a library." The isle way sleeper just looked down at her. He crossed his arms and stood up straight with a smug grin on his face.<br>"I-I know I'm sorry, I completely forgot that it was even on with ringtone. I thought it was on sile—HEY!" She straightened up and took a half step back, putting her back now up against the shelf. She just now realized that he was starting to mock her. While still holding her head, her other arm at her side and her hand in a clenched fist. She breathed in trying to help calm herself down, but no dice. She jabbed a finger at him, poking him in the chest trying to ignore the tingle of excitement that was starting to radiate up her arm from the contact point. "What type of person just lies in the middle of a walk way and expects not to get stepped on?" she said in a loud whisper, still trying to respect the fact that they were in a library, all the while her blush started to fade slowly due to her frustration.  
>"Well what type of a person can't go around a road block when they see one?" He countered while taking a step forward after accepting her challenging words. He kept his grin on his face as she looked back at him with her mouth slightly agape. He could tell that she was getting flustered and he was starting to enjoy pushing her buttons, not to mention whenever someone attempts to make a challenge, you can be sure he will accept it and challenge right back.<br>Natsumi was starting to grow really frustrated with this oh so, annoying yet handsome jerk in front of her. Even the fact that she could feel that she was automatically attracted to him annoyed her. She shook her head and quickly turned so she could start to pick up a few of the books and place them back on the shelf "I don't need to stand here and take this-this type of harassment from a lazy Neanderthal!" she countered before storming off. She pushed past him, leaving his mouth agape staring after her watching her continue on to the section in the library further down near her favorite corner.

She finally made it to the section that was her goal the whole time. Along the way, she managed to find a new book. She sat down in one of the comfy chairs that was near a window by the back wall of the library. She sat down and got comfortable first. She put her backpack on the floor and put the book on the chair's arm rest while she finished getting settled. She remembered that Kagome had responded back, so she took out her phone, first turning it onto silent then continued to check her message. She learned that Kagome and Sango were still in line waiting for the cafeteria. A few texts back and forth later, they made plans to all meet at the front gates later on after school let out. Natsumi had a small smile on her face while humming a tune and started to read a book for the remainder of the lunch period. She heard the bell and she scrambled to gather her things and to take the book so she could check it out for the rest of the week. She didn't even realize that she had accidentally left her phone on the chair. Yet a certain someone who was never too far away noticed and walked over to where her phone was sitting and picked it up. With a smirk he thought out loud, "now this could be interesting."

**Alright you guys, please tell me what you think! I actually had a lot of fun writing this first chapter. And hopefully it is as good as I think it is :]  
>Please read and review (also please remember that this is my first story) So if there is anything I can improve on please, please, please let me know :]]<strong>

***~foxfaceish**

**Edited: January 5 2012  
>Edited: October 10 2012<br>Final Edit: November 27, 2012**


	2. New Chapter 2

**For some reason, when I edited the chapters (making the football to track and field change) it did not save or update the chapters with the new content. So here I am going back (with a new laptop that has none of the past chapters on it) and re-editing things. So if any of you were wondering why I might not have updated this story, well…this is your answer. Oh, and I am also going to place this little note in the beginning of each of my chapters. That way it will make things easier on you as the reader, and me as the author. happy reading!  
><strong>Well, since you are reading this, it obviously means that you had read my first chapter. And I humbly thank you for doing so. :3 In between writing this chapter and when I finished up my first chapter, I got slightly discouraged because of a few things that had happened in my life. Not to mention that I also got suuuper busy because of the holidays, and since I am the night time manager and work in a restaurant that is 24/7 I got stuck with a lot of late night/grave yard shifts so I was always sleeping in past noon. Then a couple of hours after I woke up, I had to go back into work. Good grief!

Anyways, I am pretty sure that you can already guess who is who and what not, and yes they are all human, yet they may all have some of their demon traits ;3

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. T^T boo. But everyone else I do :3

_**Recap:**__  
>She made it to the section that was her previous destination and managed to find a new book. She sat down in one of the comfy chairs that was near a window by the back wall of the library. She remembered that Kagome had responded back, she then took out her phone, first turning it onto silent then continued to check her message. She learned that Kagome and Sango were still in line waiting for the cafeteria. They made plans to all meet at the front of the school later on after school. Natsumi had a small smile on her face while humming a tune and started to read a book for the remainder of the lunch period. She heard the bell and she scrambled to gather her things and to take the book so she could check it out for the rest of the week. She didn't even realize that she had accidentally left her phone on the chair. Yet a certain someone noticed and walked over to where her phone was sitting and picked it up. With a smirk he thought out loud, "now this could be interesting."<em>

_**A New Start  
><strong>__Chapter 2: Old faces, new smiles_

Natsumi finished the rest of the first day of school and started to head to the school's field to see about her last period. She really hoped that it was a fluke in the system and she wasn't put on as an actual team manager. _"I really thought becoming a manager of a team is something you had to try out for as well, or at least to apply for."_ She heard a bunch of laughter coming from within a hallway that she was passing by; she looked in while she was walking. She could see a lot of students still milling around while she and a few other sports people walked to the locker rooms, gyms or fields. She kept her eyes out for Sango to try to see if she was also walking along the same route that she took.  
><em>Man, I have been really reminiscing lately. I wonder why…Oh, well duh, it's because I miss all of my old friends and everything. And now, I bet it is going to be harder because a few of my old friends were on the track team. And the only ones who were really serious about the sport was Phillip, Jonathan, and Kouga. They were really good. Phillip and Kouga just had the natural ability to run fast. And well, Jonathan he trained almost every day and night just to keep up with everyone, probably so he could be like his brother…Ugh, why do I keep thinking about them? It makes me miss them that much more…I wonder; would they talk to me now if I showed up?<em>  
>She was almost to the field now and she still didn't see Sango. Natsumi let out a sigh and climbed the last few steps to the field and turned her attention to her destination. She looked around and saw that at one end of the field there were a handful of junior and senior boys that were already changed and were ready for today's practice. She assumed that they were some of the Varsity team members. Closer to the middle were just a couple of other guys, they seemed as if they were mainly sophomores and juniors, some of them were not dressed yet but started to head off towards the locker room to change. Then there were a couple of freshman at the far end of the field. They were a bit too far away for her to really see anything that they were doing so she turned her focus to try to locate a coach. It was not like Natsumi didn't like sports, at her old school she used to play volleyball and tennis and whenever she could she would always support her friends who were on the track, football, swim or water polo team by going to a few of the games. Did she know what was going on all of the time? Not in the least bit, but she always made it a point to try something new, but when she was just not comfortable with the whole thing she liked to steer clear from whatever it was. This was definitely not one of her comfort zones. She finally was able to locate one of the coaches who was not too far from her. She waited till he was done talking with one of the students then stepped up while getting his attention.<br>"Excuse me? Hello, I am Natsumi O'Sullivan." She paused and held out her new schedule so he could see that it was telling her to be on the field. The coach took the schedule and peered down at it and she continued, "Apparently I am a Varsity track and field manager." Natsumi then became at a loss of words when there was a large clap sound from behind her. She gasped and quickly turned, the coach just lazily looked up; he started humming a tune which she guessed that was a song that was stuck in his head because it sounded like the same part over and over again. He squinted through his sun glasses to see what she was looking at that, then he looked back down and opens up his small folder and looks up in a roster. Natsumi located the cause of the loud noise and it was just a bunch of track guys coming out from the locker room, one of them had clapped the starting clapper in another's ear while walking towards the field. _"Hmm, they seem pretty excited. They probably were doing some sort of first school day ritual or probably just messing around or something."_ She then let out a sigh and turned her attention back towards the coach. There was a clearing of the throat and she looked back up at the coach.  
>"Well you seem to be in the right place. I'm Coach Miles, and him over there is the other Varsity coach, Coach Stevenson." He held out his hand and she reciprocated by shaking his back. "Nice to have you on board O'Sullivan." She opened her mouth to say to just call her by her first name but he cut her off with a smile and said. "Think of it as if you are on the team, we call everyone by their last names."<br>"Thanks I guess," she hesitated then asked after taking a quick glance around her. "So, I guess it isn't a mistake. Well, what do I have to do around here? I really hope it's not washing towels or something." Her face became contorted with a grossed out expression. The coach gave out a sun aged chortle and shook his head.  
>" No, you don't have to do any of the laundry. We have a company that comes in and does that. But basically you and the equipment manager help out the team; you take roll, make sure there is water, make sure and keep track of my records sheet, and when we have meets to try to help keep an eye on them. All rather simple things." He handed back to her her schedule. "But since it is the first day of the school year, all the managers get to leave at three today so they could tell their parents the news and to get a waiver signed so you can travel with the team to the away meets. But just hang around here for a few minutes because I am going to call a meeting with the rest of the returning Varsity team members, so I will give it to you then."<br>"Returning team members? Where are the new team members? Shouldn't I be with them? I mean, because I am certainly not a returning team member," she let out a nervous laugh but looked up at the coach with a questioning look.  
>"Well, there are a few reasons why you should stay here on the field. One being that it isn't a very important meeting for you to attend since I already told you what you are going to be doing. Second," he gave a bit of a chuckle, "it is being held in the boy's locker room."<br>"Oh!" Natsumi gave an embarrassed laugh and her cheeks turned a slight shade of pink. "Well I completely understand now." She put full emphasis on 'completely' and nodded in agreement to the coach and headed to a bench that was on the fields' edge waiting for the meeting to start.

At first she started looking around, watching the guys that she soon will be spending most of the year with then she soon became bored of that and reached into her backpack and pulled out the book that she had checked out and continued reading where she left off. The time for the meeting came and she joined the rest of the guys out in the middle of the field and sat down on one of the sides, while the rest of the guys were in two rows of different attention, the first half were just sitting Indian style on the ground like her, and the ones behind them were standing. She could feel a few stares from behind her but she just shrugged them off. _"Of course they are staring, they are probably wondering what I am doing here…"_ She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them while starting to tune back into what the coach was saying. He handed out the waivers and the travel permission slips then right as she thought he was going to end the meeting he looked over at her.  
>"And starting today we have a new team manager." He motioned everyone's attention with his binder towards her location. Her cheeks grew slightly pink from shock and embarrassment. "O'Sullivan…" he said while motioning her to go up to where he was standing. Weakly she complied and got up, brushed invisible dirt off of her shorts and hands while walking over to stand beside the coach. She gave a weak and shy smile holding up her hand and wiggling her fingers in an awkward wave.<br>"Umm, hello everyone…" She started to become overwhelmed with nervousness but took in a deep breath _"just stay calm, its camp counselor time." _She thought to herself. She regained her composure with the breath that she just took and gave a better smile looking at all of the faces that were staring at her. Some were smirking some were looking where they shouldn't, a couple of them nodded and gave a nice smile back or did nothing at all but stare. "Alright, well as Coach Miles just stated it looks like I am the new Varsity track and field team's manager." She looked at the coach and he nodded as if motioning her to go on with the introduction and with a sigh she continued. "Quite right, well I suppose a little about me I guess. I guess, first off my first name is Natsumi, and I'm afraid my knowledge in the sport is very minuscule, so I am assuming that during this year I will be learning quite a bit. What else, what else…oh, my favorite subjects I guess would be computer, art and science. This is also my second year here at this school so if the majority of you guys don't know me, that is why. Umm I seem to have run out of things to say…I guess," she glanced over at the coach but he was on the phone with another teacher she assumed and looked back at the team. "Uhh…Any questions?" She shrugged her shoulders and had a lopsided grin on her face, thinking that they should have little to none, why or better yet what would they ask her? Then there was a clearing of the throat and she looked to see who it came from. She couldn't quite decide where so she continued to glance around until someone spoke up.  
>"Umm yeah, if you don't know anything about track or field sports, then how did you become a team manager, I thought you had to apply through the coach to get the spot."<br>Natsumi laughed quietly and shook her head, "honestly I have the faintest idea. I thought that myself, yet…here I am." There was a little bit of chuckling amongst the teens when another one piped up.  
>"So, do you have a boyfriend?" There was a bit more chuckling and Natsumi's cheeks grew a bit pink at the question but then suddenly got over it as she tried to scan the group to see who asked the question.<br>"Umm thanks?" She started while still scanning around and a smile began to grow upon her lips, "No I don't, but try as you might, I do not just open up for just anyone, and I am pretty sure that none of you would succeed." She ended the statement with a big smile and a tilt of her head. There were a few 'ohh's' and 'damns' at her burn to whoever made the comment but she just smirked them off, "does anyone have any other questions?" She paused but when there was none she continued while standing up straight, "okay, well, try not to pick on me too much about things that I don't know, and if anyone wants to help give me the low down on things I should know, I am accepting any information. But other than that, I will do my best to be a good team manager, and what I mean by that, is that I will try hard to not mess up royally." By this time the coach came back over and patted her on the shoulder signaling her to sit back down, she did thusly and he wrapped up the team meeting.

Like the coach said she was able to leave at three while the rest of the team stayed behind and finished their drills and practices. She hurriedly walked to the front of the school where she said she would meet up with Kagome and Sango. Upon her arrival they all discussed on where they should go, soon they settle on the food court in the mall. There they sat with different snacks from different places and they all just munched and shared first day stories. They showed off their schedules and talked about the differences. Natsumi's last class really caught the other two girl's attention. They were obviously jealous; they teased her about how much better being in that position was than being a cheerleader for the football team, and all she could do was just roll her eyes at them. They then went onto other subjects and started to walk around the mall for a bit. They looked at makeup, perfume, new clothes and different things. Then it was time that they all said their goodbyes. Sango and Kagome lived close to each other so they both walked off with each other while Natsumi walked home by herself.

She was almost halfway home when her ipod decided it was time to die on her. She groaned in protest, but of course it did nothing to help charge, or rather change the situation. She muttered to herself and shoved the dead ipod and headphones back into her back pack and kept on walking. Her house now in plain view where she walked she noticed her little puppy out in the front yard. Excitedly she ran the rest and with as much enthusiasm as the little fur ball greeted her, she greeted her puppy in return.  
>"Hey Chunky! How is my baby?" She picked up Chunky and gave her a great hug and walked into her house with the little fuzz ball in her arms. She greeted her mother and showed her mom her new school schedule. They talked a little and she handed over all of the flyers and permission slips that needed to be signed and talked a little bit more.<br>"So…" Her mother started in as she started to peruse the permission slips by class. "Do you think you are going to make more friends this year? Is Kagome or Sango in any of your classes?"  
>Natsumi slouched over the kitchen counter and sighed. "As of more friends? I don't think so, that kind of thing is hard to do to begin with in high school. And then add the fact that this is only my second year at that school. I would be lucky to just keep the two I have, you know teenagers." Natsumi made a face and smiled when her mother started to laugh. "oh, and you other question, no. And it stinks too, but I kind of assumed that would happen because they are both way smarter than me." She started to finger the counter as her sentence started to fade, her mother put a hand on her daughters shoulder causing Natsumi to look up at her mother.<br>"Oh my dear child, every mother thinks their child is smart. And it is true, you are actually very smart, do you know how many things you have taught me when you were younger?!"  
>Natsumi just snickered, "Yeah, I taught you so much…I was your first and only child, so of course I am going to teach you a lot of things, well more like awakenings if you ask me." Her mother laughed and shook her head.<br>"I am not talking about that…though that statement is not false. You really did open my eyes a few times when you were a toddler. But, back to the point. Remember that phase that you went through where you learned all of those random facts?  
>"Did you know if you entered your pin backwards at an ATM it trips off the police?"<br>"Okay…that is a new one…so I am assuming it isn't a phase…" She smiled and Natsumi continued.  
>"So if you are ever into any trouble, whether being robbed or something, you can get your money because the bank recognizes the pin, and it recognizes the pin being put in backwards, it sends a silent alarm to the police." Natsumi finished summarizing the fact and waited for her mother to finish processing the information.<br>"Oh, I see, well that is really smart. But I can't even do my pin backwards right now…How would I possibly do it if someone is holding a gun to me?" Her mother smiled and the two of them laughed a little. But then Natsumi's mother remembered what she was saying and continued. "See? That is what I am talking about, you have a lot of knowledge in your head that everyone that you talk to becomes inspired in some little way or another."  
>Natsumi scoffed a little, "I…Kinda doubt that…But okay. I am smart…But what does knowing all of those random facts…How do they help me?"<br>Her mother smiled and got up and embraced her into a tight short hug but hung onto her daughter. "I have absolutely no idea, but I will leave it up to you to figure that out." They both laughed and Natsumi shook her head.  
>"Gee thanks mum."<br>"Anytime! Now, tell me more about that fact!" They sat for a little bit longer while Natsumi finished saying her newest fact.  
>After they were done, she headed up the stairs tailing after her little bouncing puppy. She got onto her computer and surfed the internet for a little while. She was lucky she didn't have any homework to do yet, Kagome and Sango already had to write a paper that is due on Wednesday. After checking her email, and other websites she kept up with, she then went and sat on the seat by her window in her room while going through her backpack. Taking out a few things that she didn't need and putting in the things she did. She then started to look for her phone so she could charge it but to no avail, she couldn't find it. She started tearing things apart looking for it. Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw light in the room of her neighbor's old house. Yet, when she looked, there wasn't a light and the window was open slightly with the curtains blowing silently in the breeze. <em>"Weird, I could have sworn I saw someone or something moving over there…but I don't think anyone moved in yet...wait, when did the window get opened?"<em> she waited a minute staring at the next doors window but then sighed and shrugged her shoulders while going back to search for her phone. _"Must be my imagination then…"_ she then went back downstairs to get her house phone so she could try phoning her cell. As she called her phone, in the distance she could hear its ring tone playing. She ran back upstairs to where she thought it was coming from, but as soon as she made it to her backpack she didn't hear it anymore, but right as she reached her backpack she thought she heard a bang and someone cursing coming from the house next door. She paused for a moment staring at the neighbors window waiting and listening for another noise. But when none came she shrugged and looked down at her house phone growing more and more confused she hung up and tried again. This time there was no sound, just the ringing from her house phone. "Great…not only do I think I am hallucinating, I am hearing things that are not here!" She said aloud to no one in general, "oh great and now I am talking to myself!" She paused, "well, that was always normal." She laughed with a sigh then decided to let her mother know. She knew he mother was not going to let her live it down.

After she told her mother about the news, she went back upstairs to take a shower. Tonight she let herself take a nice long hot shower; after she got out she noticed the steam build up and opened her bathroom window to let fresh air in and to let the steam out. She enjoyed the tingle of the fresh air on her damp skin. Her arms quickly covered in goose bumps from the chill in the air. She walked back to her room and noticed her little puppy snoozing next to her backpack on the bench cushion; it was probably her favorite spot to sit in the whole house. From that spot, she has a full view of Natsumi's room, and if she peeks out the window she could see the small runway strip down the side of the house, and a little bit of the front lawn so she could see if there is anyone coming up to the house.. She gave a small smile and clicked play on her music library on her computer and looked back at her puppy. The little thing perked up its head and started wagging its tail. She walked over and started to dance with the little pup while holding onto its front paws.

After a song or two she decided to finally get dressed. She walked over to her dresser and ditched her towel for her summer pajamas which consisted of a tank top and a pair of sweat pants that were from her old high school. After a light dinner she went back up to her room and surfed the internet again before going to sleep.

_**-break-**_

The following morning at school she started again with homeroom but this time she started to feel as if there was a pair of eyes on her, watching every move. On the complete opposite side of the room she thought someone looked familiar but most of their face was hidden behind the person they sat behind. A few times during the period she made eye contact with that person, or well, in this case the one eye that she could see. Each time she felt slightly embarrassed and looked back down at her doodle that was on a piece of scratch paper.

A few more classes go on and she is back in the same class again for math. Then it started to happen again, _"I swear, I think it only happens when I am in this classroom…maybe it's the teacher that is giving off these weird feelings."_ She shook her head and continued to pay attention to the lecture that she was going on. Then thankfully it was lunch. Only this time she managed to meet up with Kagome and Sango. They were talking again about their teachers and Natsumi decided to ask about her math teacher. She explained her reason why and they both Kagome and Sango looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.  
>"Well I had that happen to me once before a year ago, but it just turned out to be Hojo. He used to-"<br>"He used to be Kagome's stalker." Sango finished with a bit of a laugh.  
>"H-Hey!" Kagome started with a bit of a blush on her cheeks. "If I am not mistaken you had a stalker too, well before you started to actually date him!" Kagome countered.<br>It was Sango's turn to blush now, "n-now just wait a minute there…" both of them paused but then Sango let out a sigh, "yeah, okay its true. B-but at least mine didn't give me really weird gifts to treat any ailment that one could possibly get!" She crossed her arms and huffed with a smirk.  
>"W-well, that was all because of my grandfather! He used to make up these crazy illnesses whenever I was absent becau- Wait a minute! At least mine was not a complete pervert like yours!" Kagome put the emphasis on 'pervert' and shot her best friend a challenging smirk. Natsumi just sat there with her eyes wide and her mouth slightly agape. <em>"Are…are they fighting? Should I do something?" <em>Suddenly there was a drop of a backpack at their table and a male voice laughing.  
>"So this is where you have been hiding! I could recognize that shout anywhere!" The voice said. Natsumi looked up and saw that face that looked familiar. Something about the long dark hair and the black eyes and that snarky grin on the boy's face. Something inside her snapped. She stood up abruptly before anyone could say anything else.<br>"You!" She pointed a finger at whom she was speaking to. He turned with a bored expression, but as he registered her face, his lit up.  
>"Well lookit here, if it isn't Miss Clumsy herself!"<br>"Oh, like your one to talk! Mr…" She thought a moment but ended up blurting out when nothing came to mind, "Mr. I-am-going-to-sleep-in-the-middle-of-the-aisle-so-whoever-wants-to-walk-by-will-be-obstructed-by-me!"  
>He raised an eyebrow at her and tilted his head. Crossing his arms and turning more to face her, a smirk growing steadily over his face. "Really? That's what you decide to call me? Real smooth." He took a step towards her as she took one back, this time she managed to not bump into anything. But her cheeks started to flush to a light shade of pink.<br>"Ugh! Whatever, what do you think I was supposed to call you? Mr. Snoozey Pants…no wait, why am I even wasting my time on you." She rhetorically asked before turning her attention to the shocked Kagome and Sango, "well, I will talk to you guys later tonight, on chat?" She asked and Kagome smiled and nodded, still at a little lost for words. "Okay, well before the rest of my day is ruined, I am going to the library and read, talk to you guys later." She said before leaving a stunned group of people, and headed towards the library again.

"Inuyasha!" Both girls shouted, both with excitement and frustration.  
>"What did you do?" Kagome demanded.<br>"What are you doing here?" Sango demanded right after Kagome, Kagome then demanded another question.  
>"Why didn't you call" "Or text" Sango added in between Kagome's sentence, "Or IM," "Or email!" Sango interjected again and at the same time they both ended with "us". Inuyasha went wide eyed at the rapid fire of questions.<br>"Whoah, whoah… One at a time! Plus what is with this rapid fire?!...Oh wait, never mind, I am asking that question to the rapid fire sisters!" Inuyasha commented sarcastically. "okay okay, let me see if I can do this in the right order. Nothing, she is just crazy. Well obviously I moved back and I go to this school." Inuyasha was ticking off his answers on his hand by putting down the fingers, he still had one left. "Why would I do something like that when I was bound to find you guys eventually?" He shrugged his shoulders as he finished answering their questions. Sango smiled at him.  
>"When did you move back in town?" She asked.<br>"I moved back in town three days ago in time for the new school year. It is scary how nothing has really changed at all!" Both of the girls laughed and jumped up to give him a hug before slamming him with more questions about the whole scene that happened a few minutes ago. Then for the remainder of the lunch hour he told them about everything that had happened in the library the day before.

Alright! So that is Chapter 2! How was it? Ha ha, funny, it seems that I keep ending the chapters in the same time of day (after lunch that is). Oh well. It is safe to say that it is going to be changing. :p

I already have the majority of the next chapter done so that update may come a lot quicker than I expect. But none the less please read and review! Flames welcomed, I want to try to improve where I can. Sorry that the story may be taking a while to build up, but I am still trying to find the right momentum I guess. ^-^''

Anyways, until next time  
>~foxfaceish<p>

**Edited January 07, 2012  
>Final Edit: November 28, 2012<strong>


	3. New Chapter 3

**For some reason, when I edited the chapters (making the football to track and field change) it did not save or update the chapters with the new content. So here I am going back (with a new laptop that has none of the past chapters on it) and re-editing things. So if any of you were wondering why I might not have updated this story, well…this is your answer. Oh, and I am also going to place this little note in the beginning of each of my chapters. That way it will make things easier on you as the reader, and me as the author. happy reading!**_  
>Author's note: <em>Welcome back to my story. I am actually late in posting this, I was hoping to post this last Thursday or Friday, but editing took a little bit too much time, and I had to get ready for an event I was going to on Saturday. I promise that from starting now things are going to be picking up. Also I am going to be Captain Obvious for right now, but of course, this isn't just your regular Inuyasha fic. I love all Inuyasha stories but I also really appreciate Inuyasha fics that are not so cookie cutter type. I feel things are a lot better when you [people] put their own spin on things.I also am not sure how long I want this story, but I do know that I do not want to bore any of you guys. Well I am going to stop babbling for now :p Please R&R [read and review] I am accepting all types of criticism, good or bad, it will help me make the story better. Thanks! Enjoy the chapter!

_Disclaimer: _I was not born with enough talent to become a mangaka so thusly I shall never own any type of manga. Especially Inuyasha :p But all of the other characters in this story were all born within my silly little mind. :D

_**Recap:  
><strong>__"Inuyasha!" Both girls shouted, both with excitement and frustration.  
>"What did you do?" Kagome demanded.<br>"What are you doing here?" Sango demanded right after Kagome, Kagome then demanded another question.  
>"Why didn't you call" "Or text" Sango added in between Kagome's sentence, "Or IM," "Or email!" Sango interjected again and at the same time they both ended with "us". Inuyasha went wide eyed at the rapid fire of questions.<br>"Whoah, whoah… One at a time! Plus what is with this rapid fire?!...Oh wait, never mind, I am asking that question to the rapid fire sisters!" Inuyasha commented sarcastically. "okay okay, let me see if I can do this in the right order. Nothing, she is just crazy. Well obviously I moved back and I go to this school." Inuyasha was ticking off his answers on his hand by putting down the fingers, he still had one left. "Why would I do something like that when I was bound to find you guys eventually?" He shrugged his shoulders as he finished answering their questions. Sango smiled at him.  
>"When did you move back in town?" She asked.<br>"I moved back in town three days ago in time for the new school year. It is scary how nothing has really changed at all!" Both of the girls laughed and jumped up to give him a hug before slamming him with more questions about the whole scene that happened a few minutes ago. Then for the remainder of the lunch hour he told them about everything that had happened in the library the day before._

_**A New Start  
><strong>__Chapter 3: New Friendships, Old Dealings_

It was that time again for Natsumi to go to the field where she was going to meet up with the varsity team and start her duties as Team Manager. She greeted both of the coaches and Coach Miles handed her his times log and his attendance folder. They talked for a while before he had to go start going over the plans for today's practice with the other coach. He was a nice guy, he was married but they had no kids. Natsumi just stood there for a while looking down at the roster for the team. There were a couple of names she saw were familiar from past classes, but she didn't really know any of them. Slowly the team started to form on the field and each one coming up to her to be checked off on the roster. Then she thought she was almost done but she noticed a handful of names that were still not checked off. She called out to the team to try to grab their attention.  
>"Hey guys! This is the first day for me; I don't know any of your names! Who do you think I am? Come up to me if you haven't already. Charleston…Maxwell…Rosario…" She kept going till she finished calling everyone she was missing. They huddled around her while receiving disapproving looks from her. She was half way done with the list when another player stepped up. "Name,"<br>"Taishou, Inuyasha." Said the voice, she checked him off then paused. That voice, it sounded so familiar, where did she hear it from? Her eyes grew wide as her brain started to make a connection  
>"No…" She said quietly. The person before her wasn't moving away and she felt an intense stare coming from above her. Half of her wanted to know who it was but the other half did not want to find out in the least bit. Finally her eyes glanced up at his face, his hair was pulled back and he was in a muscle tee and basketball shorts, but there he was, arms crossed with a huge smirk across his face. She let out a groan and rolled her eyes.<br>"Well lookit here, if it isn't Miss. Clumsy"  
>Natsumi shot him a dirty look "Ya know, I am going to change your name to Mr. Annoying real soon because you start popping up in all of the places where I don't want you to be." She crossed her arms and heaved a big sigh.<br>"Oh, you mean there are certain places that you want me to pop up?" He raised an eyebrow as he scoffed, there was a glint in his eye. The surrounding players all smothered a few chuckles.  
>Natsumi let out a frustrated grumble, "no! Don't get too cocky there Mr. High and Mighty. Just go away and move along, I need to finish taking roll." She lifted her roster back up and turned around so now her back was facing him. Only he just bent over her shoulder and looked down at the list.<br>"Need help?" His voice startled her and she turned around abruptly and smacked him in the shoulder with the folder she was holding.  
>"No! Now go away! I have work to do!" She stomped away and finished taking roll. Once they start their practice Natsumi was able to breathe out a sigh of relief. During the whole practice she was not called on for much, they were just doing a lot of warm up exercises and the just working on their conditioning. When they started to work on their times Coach Miles called her over to a starting point on the track. Almost every time he passed on a lap, Inuyasha would call out a comment or say something to tease her, and when he was finished with his laps he was trying to wipe his sweat off onto her. But when she would back up away from him she would bump into another sweaty runner that was hanging around and she would still end up getting sweat on her. She was entirely disgusted.<p>

Later on, a few of the members asked her to go to the vending machine to get them a few drinks. Happy to get away from the annoying members she gladly accepted and rushed down the stairs to head over to the nearest vending machines. When she was done, she took a short cut and came up on the other side of the field, as she passed by some of the other track members she could have sworn she heard her and Inuyasha's name. It was happening quite often around the field so she just brushed it off and continued to the others to hand them their drinks. Inuyasha made another stupid remark and she threw the closest item at his face. Once she saw that she had just thrown a dirty and sweaty towel she immediately headed to the bathroom to wash her hands. She then remained near Coach Miles side for the remainder of the practice.

Finally arriving at home well into the evening and very grumpy, Natsumi trudged up the stairs to her room. She passed by her mother along the way and grumbled a greeting while her little puppy bounced along right behind her. She wanted to forget the annoying Inuyasha and other annoying guys on the team. She wanted to forget about everything at school so she immediately went into her bathroom to take a shower. With her hair messily pinned up she took a nice and relaxing hot shower. After a while she walks back into her room and sees Chunky sleeping on the bench underneath the window. She couldn't help but smile, that little fur ball was just too darn cute when she slept. Natsumi then sits down besides Chunky which causes her to wake up and they started to play a little with one of her favorite toys. She gets bored of that rather quickly so then Natsumi starts to talk to her. She was venting to Chunky, a couple of times she tightened her towel around her chest but continued to talk. Then she got to the point of what happened during practice.  
>"Ugh! He is just so unreasonable! Not to mention he always just pops up when I least expect him, or where I least want to see him." Natsumi exclaimed while standing up but before she could she heard someone laugh she turned around and looked out her window.<br>"So you actually keep admitting that you want to keep seeing me?"  
>"Oh…dear…lord! Seriously?" Natsumi grounded out as she crossed her arms then smirked when she saw what he was wearing; he was in nothing but a towel around his waist. <em>"Wow, I was right, he does have some muscles. And not in a gross way either. I saw his arms earlier, but wow you can really say he is well built. It really works for him." <em>She shook her head and pointed a finger over at him laughter in her voice, "Nice towel there buddy. Are you having a bit of a hard time getting dressed? And no, I never said that I want to keep seeing you, so don't you dare even start thinking anything!" She grinned at him finally excited that she for once has something on him.  
>"Oh no, I know what you said—"<br>"You know eaves dropping isn't very nice. And most of the time it can get you into trouble." This was good, she felt as if she was on a roll. She rested her hands on the window sill and leaned out a little when he walked closer to his window. She gave him a smirk and the look in her eyes was daring him to try again, which of course he accepted the challenge.  
>"Ya know, ya really are clumsy. Ya drop a lot of things, ya bump into a lot of people, ya forget a lot of things—"<br>"That is only because I don't want a certain someone to wipe their sweat on me. And some nerve! You have not even known me for a whole week yet!"  
>He raised an eyebrow, "Oh really? Ya mean there is someone that you want to wipe their sweat on you? Eww, I don't know if that is just wrong or gross…"<br>_"This isn't good, he's changing the control of this conversation."_ "you know that is NOT what I meant, and before you say anything else, I hate it when I get other peoples sweat on me. Its disgusting!"  
>"Oh is it?" He smirked and there was a look in his eye<br>"W-what? What are you thinking? No, better yet, what is it you are planning?"  
>"Oh, what I am thinking and what I might be planning are two different things, first I have a couple of questions to ask, why do you get so hot and bothered about getting sweat on you, I mean… everyone sweats…" He waited a little for her to respond before continuing.<br>She started out like a fish out of water gasping for air, but then found a good place for her to begin. "I know everyone sweats, but I could barely stand my own sweat, in the end I always have to take a shower to feel bet—" She froze, her mind became clouded from her thoughts whizzing around inside her head, "shower…" she said quietly. With a hand she reached up and felt the nice soft terry cloth towel she had wrapped around her body, that was now hanging loosely, and her fingers reacted as if she touched something hot. Her cheeks burning red, she finally realized that she had been in her towel the whole time, instead of where she thought it was only him in his towel.  
>"And that would be my second question." He commented as he watched her reactions. She quickly reached down and grabbed at the nearest object and threw it out of her window at him. Poor Chunky's face looked confused and sad when she saw her mama just throw her favorite toy out the window. "Pervert!" She shrieked as it hit him square in the face, and she closed her curtains shut and turned her back to the closest wall in her room. Her heart pounding frantically and she could hear him laugh hysterically, few seconds later he called out to her.<br>"Oi Miss Forgetfull, meet me down stairs in 20 minutes."

Natsumi stood there for a few minutes trying to let her heart calm down and for the blush to disappear. She could still hear him chuckling periodically which was definitely not helping her situation any. She then pushed off of the wall and headed to her dresser after double checking that her curtains were closed. She dumped her towel on her bed and continued to finish changing into a random pair of shorts and a baggy white shirt. She headed out of her room after putting on a quick layer of lotion and checking on her makeup. One thing that embarrassed her the most was looking like a raccoon because she didn't take the time to clean up her makeup. She just laughed at herself at this point because she probably embarrassed herself to no end with her earlier stunt.

She heads down stairs and lets her mother know that she was going to be outside for a while, and Chunky was right on her heels. She opened up her front door and Chunky bounced out only to be greeted by someone sitting on the front steps. She let out a cute little puppy growl and stalked up to him. Inuyasha then turned his head and smiled at the little fur ball and tried to reach out and pet its head, but all Chunky did was just back up and avoid him completely while trying to sniff him out.  
>"Hey Miss Forgetful, did you forget how to change back into your human form or something?" Natsumi grumbled and crossed her arms while clearing her throat. She then walked over to Chunky and picked her up and sat down on the edge where she usually sits and swung her legs slightly.<br>"So, what? Couldn't get enough or something?" She started, not really knowing what to say while keeping her focus on the little dog and hoping to keep her blush at bay.  
>Inuyasha smiled but then leaned back on his arms before starting. "So how you do know Kagome and Sango?" He held out something to her and looked up seeing it was Chunky's toy that she ended up throwing in his face.<br>"Thanks… Umm," she started to talk while playing with Chunky with the little toy. She then to decide to toss it into the yard and Chunky started to run after it. "well I guess I met Kagome in last years history class. I was doing horribly in that class and of course she was doing really well. So then after a while I asked her to help tutor me for that class and we ended up being pals. And Sango… I met her through Kagome. But after I met her sometimes she would help me with different classes like math class, I always felt bad for both of them because it was like extra work." She paused for a moment taking her eyes off of the puppy playing and looked up at him. She was surprised to see that his eyes were on her and that he was actually listening to her. Not used to that type of attention from someone that she just met so soon and quickly turned away. She cleared her throat and fidgeted a little under his gaze. "Umm, oh, I'm Natsumi by the way… I am not sure if you knew or not…" She said awkwardly while she held out her hand to shake his.  
>"And well, since you are Miss Forgetful and forgot it when you took roll earlier, I'm Inuyasha" He smirked as he took her hand and gave it a firm yet gentle squeeze. It was then that Natsumi was bombarded with a small puppy landing in her lap, happily squeaking away on her toy that she had been playing with for a while now.<p>

Smiling she picked up the dog and held out one of the paws, "and my name is Chunky!" Natsumi said is a small voice. Inuyasha just laughed and pretended to shake Chunky's paw. The little dogs face then became less concerned about her toy and about this big stranger shaking her paw. They both ended up laughing at the little dogs reaction. A few minutes later, they were laughing about something else that Chunky had done when Natsumi's mother stepped out onto the front porch.  
>"Oh! Natsumi, I didn't know you had a visitor, you should have told me and why make him sit out here on the porch? Well anyways," she turned her attention towards Inuyasha, "you should stay over and join us for dinner, I was just coming out to let her know it's ready." She looked at her daughter and back at Inuyasha ignoring her daughter's silent protests.<br>Inuyasha stood up and stuck out his hand "I'm Inuyasha by the way, I guess you can say that I am your new next door neighbor, and I wouldn't turn you down on your offer to join you for dinner, it's my brothers turn to cook tonight and I am not looking forward to that, so a break from his cooking for some real cooking would be perfect!" He let out a small chuckle and her mother started to eat him up, they started talking about various things and what not while they both walked into the house together leaving Natsumi and Chunky out on the front porch. Natsumi looked down at her small dog and the thing looked back up at her. After a second she let out a little snort and looked back up at Natsumi.  
>"I have no clue what is going on, but there's no going back." The two headed inside and went to the dining room where she found Inuyasha and her mother starting to sit down at the table and Natsumi followed suit while little Chunky went over to her little corner and ate her food that was in her dish.<p>

Dinner was less painful than Natsumi had imagined. Of course it was slightly awkward at moments because she didn't really know Inuyasha very well, and she did not really like having people over that she didn't really know well, especially what happened at her last school. Heck, Kagome and Sango only came over to her house a few times last year and twice during the summer. She mainly went to their houses or they would meet up at different places. Kagome lived at a huge shrine with her grandfather, mother and kid brother. She enjoyed time over there, but would get really creeped out at night, she was never a fan of the dark but some things just really got to her at Kagome's house. And Sango's house was a nice size, it wasn't too big and it wasn't too small, Natsumi always thought that it was quaint and homey. Sango only lived with her father and younger brother; he was just about the same age as Souta, Kagome's brother. She also had the cutest little kitty; she was all white but had black markings and a really poofy tail that at the tip, its fur split in two.

All throughout dinner, there was pleasant chatter, Chunky let out a huge burp after she was done eating and they all laughed. She then went back to smell Inuyasha. He must have smelled interesting because she sniffed his legs and every detail of his shoes. But every time he bent over to try to pat her on the head she kept backing up away from him while giving him a very weary look. This also got a few laughs out of the three diners. During dinner Natsumi's mother learned that Inuyasha was on the team that her daughter was the manager of. Her and her mother both learned about a few things from Inuyasha, and he the same as they would tell stories. Then after everyone was finished they all helped with the dishes but then Natsumi's mother quickly took over with the dishes and shooed them out of the kitchen.  
>"Well it was nice to have you and be sure you don't make yourself a stranger. You are welcome to come over anytime." Inuyasha thanked her again for inviting him to dinner then followed Natsumi and Chunky down the hall. They then started to head up the stairs with Chunky still in the middle, but not for long when Inuyasha bent down and scooped up the little dog.<br>"Ha! Now I've got you." He said as she wiggled to try to get free, unsure of the teenager who now held her captive.

They reached her room and she sat down in her chair at her desk and he walked over to sit on her bed. Inuyasha let out a small chuckle when he started to move the towel she had previously discarded. Immediately she grabbed it out of his hands with a quiet groan and rushed down to her bathroom to hang it up out of sight. She paused before coming back into her room to let her cheeks turn back to normal. When she came back into her room she saw the two of them playing with one of her toys. She sat at her desk and for a while she just watched, hugging her legs up to her chest with a smile on her face. The two of them looked really cute. Natsumi quietly got her camera off of her desk to take a quick snapshot of the two playing. She managed to get it without detection from the dog and boy.  
>"So anyways, umm sorry I guess, about my mom and all. She can sometimes be a little bit too friendly, and sometimes a bit nosey and pushy...She is used to a large family with a lot of kids always being around, but since that isn't how it is now a days, she is probably missing it."<br>"Why are you apologizing? Its fine. I thought it was uh, really nice." He responded while tossing the toy back to the puppy. "What changed? What do you mean?" He asked her. For some reason he was curious to know why she said, or did some of the things she did.  
>She hesitated for a while then began, "well, before I moved here I used to have a lot of friends. We were like a family of teens. It could get crazy some times." She hoped that it was enough to satisfy him but by the look on his face, it said otherwise, so she took a deep breath and continued. "And I used to be close with a lot of people. My house sometimes was the main hang out place during the summer because there were only two of us that had pools." She looked off into the distance for a few seconds then came back to reality, realizing she was sharing a lot of information. "Well, quite obviously things happened, and the people who were supposed to be my best friends ended up turning their backs on me and starting rumors. And then I moved here." She ended rather quickly not wanting to spend any more time on the subject. She turned her attention to something on her desk and started fiddling with it while feeling his gaze upon her. She glanced up at him briefly wanting a change in subject started to talk.<br>"So you asked me how I knew Sango and Kagome, how do you know them?"  
>"Well like I said, I moved back into the neighborhood. So I grew up with them, along with my pal Miroku. He moved away the same year I did, different reasons, but we still keep in touch and still hang out as if we were practically neighbors." He chuckled a little at a passing memory but turned his attention back to her. "That is also why I am on the team. In middle school we both played on the city's team and that was where we made a promise to each other. We made each other promise that we would continue with track and cross country until senior year in high school to see who is faster. We were not too sure about after high school because we both have different obligations to fulfill, but a promise is a promise." He looked at her with a smirk.<p>

After a few seconds they both heard someone calling for Inuyasha in his house. Inuyasha grumbled and got up to poke his head out the window. "Yeah Sesshomaru, whatta ya want? Im over here…"  
>"Inuyasha, you have things to do, you cannot slack on your responsibilities."<br>"Keh..Ya alright, I'll be back in a few minutes."  
>"Come back home now."<br>"Jeez! Hold yer horses! I'm comin' alright?" He turned to Natsumi and heaved a grumbled sigh, "Okay well I better get going, my brother finally figured out that I wasn't home."

She nodded and started to head out her room to the stairs, Inuyasha hung back a few seconds with a smirk. When he was out of her line of sight he went over to her dresser and placed her phone on it after taking it out of his pocket. He then hurried out of her room and followed her down the stairs. She stood on her porch as she watched him hop over the fence that separated their houses. Something about him just intrigued her. For starters, why was he so interested in her story? Sure many people were and wondered why she moved here, but they were all just nosey and busy bodies that just wanted to gossip, but she never got that vibe from him.

Once back in her room she heard a ping that was her generic notification on her phone when someone texted her. Confused she started to look around for her phone again. It wasn't until a few minutes later she looked at her dresser and saw her phone sitting right there. She looked at it hesitantly, knowing she didn't place it there. She looked and smiled when she saw the senders name.  
><strong>Inuyasha: night.<strong>  
>She hesitated. She wondered if she should send a reply, but thought it would be best to at least say thanks.<br>**Natsumi: Thanks. G'night.  
><strong>She set her phone of her desk and sat down at her computer. Shesigned onto her chat and started talking to Kagome and Sango like they agreed to earlier. They mainly talked about school and what some of their teachers are planning. Sango warned Natsumi of Ms. Kaede's infamous math project.

_End Chapter 3  
><em>Alright everyone, there is Chapter 3. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it! I will be looking forward to your guys' reviews! If you want to see any types of changes or if you want to see something specific in this story just leave it in a review! :D I will be sure to work it all in :D

I am going to try to keep updating once a week (unless I get busy or something) I am actually pretty excited that I am able to finish this chapter before this weekend.

~foxfaceish

Unedited  
><strong>Final Edit: November 29, 2012<strong>


	4. New Chapter 4

**For some reason, when I edited the chapters (making the football to track and field change) it did not save or update the chapters with the new content. So here I am going back (with a new laptop that has none of the past chapters on it) and re-editing things. So if any of you were wondering why I might not have updated this story, well…this is your answer. Oh, and I am also going to place this little note in the beginning of each of my chapters. That way it will make things easier on you as the reader, and me as the author. happy reading!**_  
>Author's note: <em>  
>Hey peoples, I know I have not updated in a while, and well that is because I was really hoping for some reviews. Anyways, sinc Goddess of Hearts was the only one to review, I suppose this chapter is for you :p<br>_Disclaimer: _I was not born with enough talent to become a mangaka so thusly I shall never own any type of manga. Especially Inuyasha :p But all of the other characters in this story were all born within my silly little mind. :D I also do not own any of the songs that I may mention during this chapter

_**Recap:  
><strong>__Once back in her room she heard a ping that was her generic notification on her phone when someone texted her. Confused she started to look around for her phone again. It wasn't until a few minutes later she looked at her dresser and saw her phone sitting right there. She looked at it hesitantly, knowing she didn't place it there. She looked and smiled when she saw the senders name.  
><em>_**Inuyasha: night.**__  
>She hesitated. She wondered if she should send a reply, but thought it would be best to at least say thanks.<br>__**Natsumi: Thanks. G'night.  
><strong>__She set her phone of her desk and sat down at her computer. She____signed onto her chat and started talking to Kagome and Sango like they agreed to earlier. They mainly talked about school and what some of their teachers are planning. Sango warned Natsumi of Ms. Kaede's infamous math project._

_**A New Start  
><strong>__Chapter 4: Old Problems, New Situations_

The next morning, Natsumi awoke with an annoying loud sound at 4:30am. Already not really being a morning person, she groaned loudly and rolled out of bed. She then started the blind search for the source of the loud noise. She could tell that it was coming from the other side of the room and then saw something familiar wiggling around as the noise continued. She then realized that it was her phone. _"What the heck?"  
><em>"Inuyasha!" she ground out when she realized that it must have been him who set the alarm for this godforsaken hour._  
><em>"good grief, what else did he change on here? Better not be anything else. Or else I am going to _kill _him." She tried to look through her phone but she was just so tired her eyes could not focus on anything. She just shook her head and remembered to turn off the alarm and to set it for the correct time. She then started to blindly search for her charger because she noticed that it was about to die. After fussing with her phone she then climbed back into bed with her snoozing puppy and cuddled up with it for a few minutes. She wanted to go back to sleep but her body would not rest because she had already gotten up and moved around. With her, once she got up out of bed and took a few steps, she could not fall back to sleep. So she just laid there. She petted her dog's head wanting to wake it up but all she did was just wiggle out of her reach. A few minutes later Natsumi let out a sigh and sat back up. She looked out her window and saw Inuyasha's , it was still dark and she had a good feeling that he was still asleep. Reaching for her glasses she put them on then reached for her cell phone. She went under her messages, found Inuyasha's name and opened up a new text message.  
><strong>Natsumi: Thanks ya jerk.<br>**She sent the message. She really, _really _did not want to be up this early. Sighing, she scooped up the still sleeping Chunky and they headed down the stairs. She went into the kitchen and sat the tired dog on a chair and she started to make some breakfast for herself and her mother. She made some eggs and toast while she had a pot of coffee brewing. All the while she sipped on some grapefruit juice. Her mother always thought she was a slightly odd child because she enjoyed drinking and eating grapefruit without sugar. Typically everyone drank orange juice or cranberry juice in the morning. But Natsumi only drank orange juice when she was not feeling well or when there was nothing else. Natsumi also stayed away from apple juice and grape juice. It was too sweet for her liking. She would only drink apple juice if it was a cider. If she ever had to place the juices in an order, which she has because her mom asked her to once, it would go, grapefruit, pineapple and cranberry. Around thirty minutes before six in the morning, her mother came into the kitchen, they exchanged their 'good mornings' while Natsumi poured her mother a cup of coffee and put some eggs and a couple of slices of toast on a separate plates for the two of them.

After breakfast, Natsumi headed back up stairs and started to get ready for school. Inside her bathroom she saw the colors of the morning sky. She paused for a moment as her shower started to warm up. She could not remember the last time she woke up this early. Her shower was ready so she headed in the warm water. As she shampooed her hair she started to think back the last time she was up this early. She remembered at least a handful of different times. A couple of times was when her and her friends would go to an amusement park. They had decided to get up really early so they could get there right as the park opened up. Another time was when her, Jonathan, Holly, Kouga, Ayame and Phillip. A lot of times he had to go with the younger kids so they wouldn't get into any trouble. Despite the fact that he was only two years older than the rest of the group.  
><em>"I remember that day, we had a lot of fun…"<br>_**The six of them decided to go to the beach for the day. They decided that they would get there before the sun rise so they could a full day there. And so they could watch the sun rise. Despite it being in the middle of the summer, it was really chilly in the morning, everyone met at the train station. The girls were already in their bathing suites, but were covered by a few layers of clothes. They had their tanks and shorts on underneath their school's sweatpants and sweatshirts. The boys only wore flannels and shorts or a light jacket. The girls had also brought everyone's towels and blankets where the guys brought a couple of coolers to hold drinks and snacks. Everyone still seemed to be really sleepy. Phillip was sort of cranky because he had to join them, but Natsumi could tell that he didn't mind coming along. She saw that he had a couple of books with him. When the train came they managed to snag a part of a car that they would all fit. Phillip just sat behind them all on the way there to nap. Everyone else just talked, joked around and made use of their time. They had forgotten about being tired and now they were all fully excited about the long day they had ahead of them. Once at the beach they all silently watched the sun come up and after it was up they staked out their land. Ayame had brought cute little flags to mark out their territory so no one would invade their space. Holly and Natsumi placed out the blankets so they all would have a place to sit. The boys talked about where the two umbrellas should go, and once the girls had finished setting up their area, the boys staked the umbrellas. Phillip just laid down at one end of the blankets and started reading. After the nip in the air started to burn off, the girls started to take off their sweatpants and sweatshirts. Jonathan and Kouga took off their shirts and shorts just leaving on their swim trunks. They took off for the water right after that. The girls just looked at them like they were crazy. The three girls just sat on the blanket (with Phillip behind them) talking about different things. Ayame started to bring up the subject of boys at one point but then the sound of a throat being cleared reminded her that Phillip was still right there. The other two girls giggled as her cheeks turned pink. 'Another time then…' She whispered. Holly and Natsumi just nodded their agreement. When the two boys came back from the water the girls supplied them with towels and they sat and talked for a while. It was mid-morning when they all decided to go into the water. The girls took off their tanks and shorts and helped each other apply their sunscreen. The boys were already down back in the water. They were dunking each other under water and cracking jokes while they waited for the girls. Natsumi turned to Phillip to see if he was going to join them, but noticed he was snoozing in the shade of their umbrellas. The book he was reading was open face down on his stomach. She reached down and put a place holder on the page he was on and set the book next to him with a bottle of sun screen so when he woke up he could put some on. Then the three girls headed down to join up with the two other guys. A few hours later after fun frolicking in the sun they started to head back up towards their blankets and towels. Phillip was up and handed everyone towels so they wouldn't get everything wet. Everyone couldn't stop laughing, they were having so much fun. Natsumi could tell that Phillip **_**really**_** did not want to be where he was right now, he picked up his soda and started to take a drink. Wrapped in a towel, Natsumi dropped down next to Phillip and snagged his soda away from him and stole a drink. After returning it she just laughed and stuck out her tounge in his annoyed face.  
>'Hey let's eat! I am starving!' Kouga stated. Ayame scoffed and rolled her eyes saying something that he was always hungry. They all laughed and started to eat the lunch that they all brought. After they ate everyone but Natsumi and Phillip wanted to explore. Natsumi wanted to take a nap, and well, Phillip just did not want to be there so he went to go for a walk to the ice cream shop or something. After a while Natsumi was awoken to Phillip returning. She rolled over onto her back and he held out his arm. He offered her an ice cream cone with mint chocolate chip ice cream, one of her favorites. She sat up and accepted it and turned back around to face the ocean.<br>'Thanks.' He nodded as he finished his ice cream. 'Hey…' She started as she took a lick of her ice cream. 'Sorry you have to be here right now. I know you would rather be somewhere else.' She looked out at the water and glanced over around them. A lot of people showed up to the beach today. It was a good thing that they came early.  
>'Why do you think that?' He asked. Behind her, he sat facing the same way, she heard him shift and she looked at him out of the corned of her eye. He was now like the other two boys, only in his swim trunks. He rested his arms on his knees and linked his fingers together. She shrugged her shoulders and looked back to the water.<br>'Uh, well, you are with a bunch of stupid younger teens instead of your friends.' She supplied. He snickered a little and shook his head. She then scooted backwards a little so they were sitting side by side.  
>'Well for starters, you can act older than everyone else. So that isn't as bad…' He hesitated.<br>'Is that why you don't mind me harassing you so much?' She grinned as she leaned over and nudged him with her shoulder. He shook his head and stayed quiet for a few minutes.  
>'No, you are an exception, you…' he hesitated again while searching for the right words. 'You…always have been.' She looked up at him slightly confused. It seemed as if he read her thoughts and continued. 'Other than dealing with you guys, which sometimes you guys could get rather annoying…I actually like the beach, it's always really peaceful and relaxing.' Natsumi was about to remark about how busy the beach was today but he continued, 'even when it's a busy day at the beach.' Natsumi nodded in understanding because she had a mouth full of ice cream. She was almost done but Phillip grabbed her ice cream cone out of her hand and took a few bites.<br>'H-hey!' He handed back the bottom of the cone with a devilish grin and she took it back. 'meanie.' She pouted and popped the rest of it in her mouth. He chuckled at her.  
>'you were taking too long, plus I wanted you to have the last few bites, I saw that they had dark chocolate hot fudge, so I had them put a bit at the bottom of the cone instead of the regular milk chocolate they have.' Natsumi's eyes lit up when he identified what she tasted. It was really good, she kind of liked the chocolate at the bottom, but always wished it was dark chocolate, since she wasn't a fan of milk chocolate.<br>'Wow! Thanks! That was really good! Good call!' He just smiled and nodded. They sat there for a little while in silence when he noticed her shoulders were starting to get pink.  
>'Hey, your shoulders are getting pink, you should put more sun screen on.'<br>'oh..thanks.' She looked over at him and saw the same as well. 'hey, same thing with you. Did you put any sunscreen on at all?' He nodded and put some more in his hands to get his shoulders again.  
>'Yeah, when you guys were down in the water.' They both reapplied sun screen on the places they could get and then they helped each other with their backs. Natsumi blushed when she felt his hands on her lower back and sides. He was being really gentle yet firm to get it applied evenly. They decided to go down to the water to wait for the rest of the group. When they were walking down he noticed her blush that wasn't going away. 'Hey! Did you put any on your face? Your cheeks are really pink.'<br>'y-yeah… I did already.' They played a little down in the water; he pushed her down under a wave but then regretted it when she surprised him by grabbing one of his ankles and giving it a tug. She came back up to the surface laughing. They then tried to have a floating contest but Natsumi kept of failing. He teased her about having rocks in her butt because she could not keep afloat. She was about to retaliate by splashing him when all of a sudden she was tackled from behind. Kouga had jumped up on top of her startling her. She let out a small scream and was about to slap him but then got a big wave in her face. She lost her footing and felt an hand grab her arm and pull her back up. When she stood back up she had a long strand of seaweed draped on her shoulder. Feeling the slimy thing she looked down half scared and half disgusted. The boys just laughed, she quickly grabbed it and ripped it off and as she threw it back in the water away from her she noticed the neck ties from her bathing suit top tangled in with the strand of seaweed. Gasping she let go of the strand and held up her top. The guys kept laughing at her not really understanding what was going on. She hunched over trying to put space in between her and the dangling seaweed that was stuck to her bathing suit. The two brothers realized first what was actually going on and stepped up to her aid while Kouga remained chuckling by himself. The two brothers trying to keep their laughter at bay worked together to get her bathing suit ties untangled from the seaweed. Jonathan managed to finish dealing with the seaweed strand and got it away from her as Phillip retied her bathing suit top around her neck. Fully embarrassed she thanked the brothers and started to head to the other two girls who were relaxing on their blanket. The boys watched after her then continued to horse around in the water. When she reached the girls she grabbed her towel and started to explain what just happened. For the remainder of the time they sat up on the blankets talking and Phillip reading one of his books. When it was time for them to leave they gathered up their stuff, the girls changed back into their tanks and shorts and the boys back into the clothes they were wearing before. They were much quieter on the trip back to their hometown. They sat spread out because there were a lot more people on the train by then. But as the passed stops, people got off and they rearranged themselves to sit with one another. Natsumi was the last one to be by a stranger and she was started to get really sleepy. The person who was sitting next to her got off and just as she was about to adjust herself someone else sat down next to her. Lazily she looked up and saw that it was just Phillip. She smilled and went back to how she was sitting originally. He opened up his other book and started reading. Not even a few minutes later she dozed off. The next thing she remembered was feeling the warmth move off of her shoulder and the warm lump stretch and move. She then realized that everyone had dozed off, Phillip had his arm around her to get himself a bit more comfortable but moved it when he awoke. She looked up at him sheepishly and rubbed her cheeks. He went over to the rest of the group to wake them up so they could get off at their stop.  
><strong>When Natsumi got out of the shower she realized that she took a really long one. She opened up her window to let out the steam and went to her room to get dressed. Before she discarded her towel she checked the time on her phone and noticed she had a new text. She opened it up and saw it was a reply from Inuyasha.  
><strong>Inuyasha: Huh? Wht r u tlking about?<strong>  
>Natsumi grumbled but didn't respond. She just closed her phone, checked her ipod to see if it was done charging. She got dressed, went back to the bathroom to do her makeup and got her backpack together. Once she was finished she headed down stairs to go to school. She did her daily double check in the mirror by the front door and then left after saying her 'good buys.' It was a brisk morning and she was glad that she was wearing a light hoodie. She had her headphones in and was halfway down the street when she thought she heard her name being called. She paused the music but kept walking; wondering if it was just her imagination. A minute passed and she didn't hear anything so she resumed her music when she thought she heard it again. This time she turned around while taking one of her head phones out and she saw Inuyasha making the final strides to catch up to her.<br>"Hey, why didn't you wait for me?" Inuyasha asked her while tugging on her backpack. She turned back around and shrugged her shoulders.  
>"I didn't know I was supposed to. Since when was it established that we were supposed to walk to school together?"<br>"Ouch, that hurt." Inuyasha held his hand up to his heart, pretending to be shot but smirked at her which got her to just roll her eyes. "But umm how about since you found out that we were neighbors?" Natsumi just looked up at him and raised an eye brow.  
>"That is the only reason?" He smirked and she crossed her arms and fiddled with the one ear bud that she held in her hand. "I guess that works…" They continued to walk. They walked for a while in silent awkward-ness until Inuyasha piped up again.<br>"Hey, what are you listening to?" He pointed to his ear.  
>"Umm probably something that you would not really like…" She responded hesitantly as she offered him the other ear bud and as he picked it up she showed him her ipod. "It's a song called 'Grave Robber at Large' by Creature Feature…"<br>Inuyasha raised an eyebrow and started to listen to the song. "hmm wow this is interesting, these guys are pretty eccentric. It is almost like a dark circus with some twisted type of psyco-billy mixed in or something…" He nodded his head in approval and he continued to walk as they listened to the song. Natsumi just looked up at him with a little bit of shock.  
>"Wait, are you trying to tell me that you know about psyco-billy? And since you said that you probably know about the rest of the types…" She kept watching him waiting for his answer, she was definitely intrigued now. He nodded his head and stuck his hands into his pockets.<br>"Yeah I guess…I like all different types of music. For example this band Creature Feature for some reason reminds me of another eccentric band. Miss Derringer, they are not really good live but their recorded stuff rocks. It's like a surfer style at psyco-billy…or something like that." He chuckles, "you should check them out, they are pretty –"  
>Natsumi cut him off by holding up her ipod showing him the next song that was going to be playing. "I think I already have," she laughs a little and he raises his eyebrows a little in shock.<br>"Wow, that's pretty cool. So let me guess, you like a wide range of music too?" Natsumi just smiled and nodded, "that's cool. Hey let me see your ipod." He took her ipod out of her hand and started going through the different artists and bands. "Wow, some of these people I have not really heard but I have heard the majority of them. That's really cool." He smiled and handed her back her device. After a while they realized that they were already at school.

They went separate ways to go to their lockers to put stuff away and get stuff that they will need for their first few classes. _"He actually is not that bad. That's good, I thought he was just an overall asshole that just loves to pick on people. I can't stand guys like that, some teasing is fine, but I don't want to be friends with someone that every time I see them we bicker. I want a change from stuff like that…"_ Natsumi silently laughed to herself when one of her old friends popped up in her head. When she was done she headed to her homeroom class and once she made it she noticed that Inuyasha was sitting on her desk. "What are you doing here? Still can't get enough?" She asked with a smirk as she started taking off her backpack.  
>He gave her a smirk back and got off her desk and crossed his arms as he leaned up against the desk that was next to hers. "Yeah, that's it, it seems as if I cannot just stay away from you towel girl." Natsumi instantly blushed when he brought back up last night and she immediately looked away and crossed her arms while suddenly feeling self-conscious.<br>"Pervert!" She said over her shoulder and she could hear him chuckle. He leaned in close to her back to where she could feel the heat coming from his chest onto her back.  
>"Oh, am I? I don't know, you were the one who was really careless about being in a towel, I mean the thing practically started to fall down off of your body." He said quietly in an unintentional husky voice into her ear. Natsumi instantly got chills running down her spine as her face grew redder and she visibly tensed up. This only caused his grin to grow. For some reason he really got a kick out of teasing her and making her squirm. He continued after putting his arms on either side of her, one on the desk and the other on the back of the chair she was sitting in. This just caused her cheeks to just burn redder. "You know, you are actually really lucky that it was me. You don't want to scare some poor stranger and make them loose their eyesight that could be bad. You see, I have had experience seeing sights like that, ya know, things people shouldn't see, things that people shouldn't show off." He leaned back to the desk next to hers and went back to cross his arms. He closed his eyes as he continued. "Yup like I said, you are lucky it was me that became your neighbor, I'm immune to things like that." He stayed there with his arms crossed and eyes still closed, his smirk was now from ear to ear and he was practically laughing.<br>She was silent for a while. She started to get really angry. She was always self-conscious like every other teenage girl out there, but she knew that she wasn't horrific looking. Yet, curse her teenage hormones that she couldn't control sometimes. "You…" she started quietly. Inuyasha opened his eyes and he leaned over, arms still crossed.  
>"What was that?"<br>"You are an asshole!" She instantly stood up which caused her shoulder to crash with his chin. Pain instantly shot into the spot where his chin impacted her. She held onto it and turned to him, he noticed a certain look in her eyes that he saw once before but was still a little bit unfamiliar with. "stop talking to me! Actually no, never talk to me again. You are nothing but a jerk, I actually thought that there was a little bit more to you than that, but there isn't." She quickly walked out of the class and headed to the first place she thought of. Once in the girls bathroom a few tears slid down her cheek, the pain on her shoulder was almost unbearable. _"Oh geez, why am I crying…Damn these hormones…He was just trying to get a rise out of me…Well, it did work…But seriously why am I crying? Shit that hurt like hell!...Yeah I know my body isn't perfect" _She looked at herself over. Staring at all of the imperfections she thought she had and started to fixate on them. _"and he just had to hit my self-consciousness right on the head, but this is nothing to cry about…If only there was a way to get back at him…"_ She stood there for a while and thought, and after a minute or two she cleaned up the tears and dabbed at her wet makeup trying to make it look as if she wasn't crying at all. She then looked at her shoulder where his chin hit her; it was bright red and was still really sensitive when she lightly touched it. _"Oh duh, that's why I was crying, this little thing really hurts like hell! Great, wearing a backpack is going to suck hardcore now…"_ She started heading back to homeroom that was now about to start any minute. _"Why am I so emotional right now? Ugh I must be getting my period soon…I really hate being a girl…" _She then felt a smirk tug at the corners of her lips as an idea popped into her head. _"I think…that that just might work in getting him back for that mean comment."_ She giggled a little then quickly wiped off the smug grin she had on as she rounded the corner to go back to her homeroom. She sees Inuyahsa watching the door like a hawk but she just ignores him and sits back at her desk next to him. She could feel his gaze upon her throughout the period but she just kept on ignoring him. Then once the bell rung she was one of the first few students out the door and made it to her next class in record time. A few hours later, Natsumi was back in her homeroom class for math when she noticed Inuyasha again. Same seat, right next to her, same expression while watching the door again. At first Natsumi froze when she saw him but regained her composure and ignored him. She talked with her other classmates around her. A few times Inuyasha tried to tap her to get her attention but she just kept up with her cold shoulder. She was proud of herself; it was probably one of the only good things that came out of her troubles when her old "friends" all betrayed her. She learned real quick how to become cold and heartless so they would stop tormenting her. She could tell that Inuyasha was starting to get really riled up and annoyed with her ignoring him.

The teacher arrived and thus started the studies. At one point when they were solving a few problems he leaned over to her. "H-Hey Natsumi… c'mon." Natsumi then turned her head and looked at him. She saw a small smile appear on his face and she just looked at him, no facial expression just totally blank and a distant look in her eyes. It caused his smile to fade and he was about to say something but she cut him off.  
>"What the fuck do you want?" He opened up his mouth as if to say something but she cut him off. "If you do not mind, I am trying to learn how to do this math problem, so do not distract me." She then turned back to her problem and finished out the class with Inuyasha's eyes on her.<p>

Kagome, Sango and her ditched Inuyasha and ate their lunches outside on the grass behind one of the buildings. They talked about various things and Natsumi brought up Inuyasha briefly.  
>"Hey is Inuyasha always really mean? Or is it just towards me?" she asked.<br>"What? No, he isn't mean once you get to know him; he actually is really sweet once you figure him out. He doesn't say what he means a lot of the times and he always comes off being really angry, but he is really nice, he would do anything for the ones he cares for." Answered Kagome. Natsumi shrugged her shoulders at her response. She knew that at one point Kagome and Inuyasha were an item, but since they were too much of an opposite towards each other, things just did not work out. Natsumi felt bad because Kagome was such a nice girl. Sango too, but she heard from Kagome that she is already dating someone. Then they asked what was going on with Inuyasha.  
>"Well…you remember how my neighbors with the little girl moved?" They nodded their heads when they remembered seeing the family. "Well, guess who happened to be my new neighbor." The other two gasped and started laughing.<br>"Wow really? So Inuyasha is now your new neighbor? Wow, small world!" Said Sango  
>"Ha, I know, except he had been pretty annoying. He would always pick on me and tease me in front of others; it is just so tiring and frustrated. Not to mention it has not even been a full week yet!"<br>"Oh, well that is just how he is, Inuyasha will tease and berate others until he gets to know you a little bit more, but even then that does not guarantee that he will not do that at all." Kagome smiled and added on, "I mean, he still teases Sango and I, it is just how he is." Sango nodded in confirmation to this and Natsumi just sighed.  
>"I get how 'boys will be boys,' but this is too much; I don't know, maybe I am just being overly sensitive, probably due to a certain gift that we all unwillingly accept." The girls laughed and groaned at the same time. Natsumi thought about it for a while then a smirk began to grow on her lips. "You know, I thought of trying to get back to Inuyasha for his really mean comment earlier, but I didn't think it was good enough. But since I have you guys here, why don't you help me fine tune it. Hopefully it will teach him not to mess with me anymore." She laughed and started to quickly tell them what they thought after looking all around making sure that they were all by themselves.<p>

The girls laughed and the other two added in their thoughts. From their past experiences and since Kagome and Sango were good friends with Inuyasha they knew a few things that really made him tick. "First of all," Kagome began, "he can be a really possessive person. It's kind of animalistic when you think about it. One of the easy ways to get at him just involves talking to other guys in front of him while ignoring him. Another way that gets him frustrated is if you change your demeanor towards him. For example you just change the way you talk to him. So instead of letting his comments get to you and letting him get you riled up, you just let his comments or remarks roll off your back and just talk to him like…" she paused, "like as if he were a teacher or something." Kagome smiled and continued, "I know when I first started to like him and his mean comments started to get to me I wanted nothing to do with him. But I also wanted to get back at him. I figured that giving him a taste of his own medicine would not help me in any way, so Sango and I devised a plan that showed him how much his 'innocent' little remarks actually hurt. And well, it was a success, his teasing and his rude remarks were toned down. Of course you can't stop Inuyasha from being Inuyasha, but apparently he has forgotten that his comments can hurt still. It's a good thing that you are friends with us." She smiled and they all laughed.

Natsumi agreed that she would do those things while putting her spin on things. They all sighed when the end of lunch bell rang. The cleaned up their messes and before separating into different ways they decided to get together over the weekend. But they would talk about those details later. She was happy that she did not really run into Inuyasha after lunch but then sighed for probably the tenth time that day as she waited on the field for the track team to finish gathering on the field. She saw Sango entering the building that had the locker rooms in it and she caught her attention. They both chatted for a while then Sango noticed that the boys were starting to gather on the field.  
>"Well looks like it's show time for you huh?" Sango commented and pointed discreetly at Inuyasha who was on the field. They watched him look all over for someone; he joined in a few conversations but never for a long time. They both let out a little giggle and Natsumi nodded. They went separate ways and Natsumi headed for the field again with the attendance folder in hand.<p>

When the majority of the guys were on the field she got their attentions and had them gather around her so she could start taking attendance.  
>"Oi, towel girl, what took you so long to get on the field? Did you forget something?" Natsumi didn't have to look up to know where the voice was coming from. But she couldn't help have a slight blush from the comment. She regained her composure and looked up at him. She could see that he definitely had a huge boost in confidence since he was surrounded by his fellow teammates, who stood slightly confused at his comment. He stood there with a grin on his face with his arms crossed. She quickly took a deep breath and put a hand on her hip, she tried flaunting her body a little, if she was going to do this she has to do it just right. She noticed a few of the players stares including his, her cheeks flushed again but quickly swallowed the feeling that was starting to get.<br>"Oh, I'm sorry 'towel boy' but it seems as if I am not the only forgetful being around here. If I remember correctly you were also in nothing but your towel last night." She paused and laughed a little inside, she knew what the guys were thinking but that is what she wanted them to think. More importantly once she saw a smirk on his face grow slightly she knew she had him. She knew he was going to say something like, 'I know you liked it' or something like that.  
>"Yeah, I know, and you really liked what you saw huh?" <em>"Wow, right on cue, but ugh, he can be so annoying sometimes!"<em> She thought but she quickly did some quick thinking for what she wanted to say next.  
>"Yeah, about that, actually I didn't like what I saw at all," she shook her head a little and gave a bit of a disapproving look, a few guys scoffed at her remark but she continued. "But you know, I think I feel sorry for you the most, since you apparently do not like girls who have natural curves. You should then try going after some girls on the track or cross country team, some of them are basically nothing but poles, no major curves to dislike there." He was shocked, the other guys were shocked, some of them were laughing and the others were giving Inuyasha disapproving looks, some just could not get over that they both saw each other in their towels. "I mean, are you trying to publicly announce that you are coming out of the closet? Oh! Is that why you don't like natural womanly curves?" Natsumi gracefully underlined her chest so there was no confusion on what she meant. Inuyasha was about to say something but Natsumi just cut him off. "And well, don't worry," she smiled, "I know that I could blind someone, but you, you were a sight that gave me sore eyes." She held up two fingers to her temple and let out a fake hiss of pain, "infact, they keep getting worse as I keep looking at you. Ugh, I need a change in scenery…" She turned a little to the side and looked down at the attendance sheet and sighed, "Ahh, much better. No eye sores in this direction."<p>

Natsumi smiled at herself, she thought she was a little too harsh, especially when she thought about how he actually looked in nothing but a towel. But she was just too wrapped up in the moment and she guiltily loved the attention that she was getting. But she turned around and took a quick glance around the other players. "The only one missing is David, am I right?" There was a murmer and she started to walk off towards the coach. There was a continuation of laughter and chatter in the background when she talked to the coach. He had asked her to go to the storage room to get a few things. She went back to the group of team mates. "Hey guys, I need one of you to help me out for a few minutes." She looked around and at first she was actually going to ask Inuyasha, but instantly put that thought out of her head. She then called on a different player that had offered. They started heading off towards the storage room and a few steps away she thought she heard her name being called. She turned around but didn't see anyone who was trying to get her attention. She just saw Inuyasha watching over her, he had an expression on his face that confused her. But the teen that she was with got her attention again.  
>"So um, what was all of that back there?" Matt asked her, she then laughed and she turned around to face the front as they headed to the storage locker.<br>"mmmm Matt right?" He nodded. "oh well, he is actually my new neighbor. And unfortunately last night was the night I found out." She laughed and ran a hand through her hair.  
>"Oh really? What street? I knew Inuyasha from before he moved and well I obviously I know that he moved back in town, but I didn't know where." He asked her.<br>"Oh, on Birmingham St.—"  
>"Right next to Alaxander St. right?" Natsumi nodded "oh man, that means I live one street down from you guys! How come I have never seen you walking down that way?" Natsumi shrugged her shoulders.<br>"I'm not sure, but what difference would that make?" She smiled with a small laugh.  
>Matt laughed at her and shook her head, "wow you sure can be dense can you."<br>"Exceuse me?" Natsumi asked slightly taken aback. She looked up at him with a questioning eye.  
>"Well duh, so we could walk home together, er well, walk to our streets together, seeing how we live on different streets." They both laughed and Natsumi nodded.<br>"oh, alright. I suppose that would be cool."  
>"Cool, oh right, you were saying how you both found out that you were each other's neighbors…"<br>"right…" Natsumi continued to tell him what happened last night and this morning while they were getting the items from the storage room and on their walk back. Matt just laughed at her and shook his head.  
>"You know… I probably shouldn't say this for a few reasons, but you know he may not have meant what he said. I mean, -"<br>Natsumi cut him off with a sigh and continued "Yeah, I know, Kagome, Sango and I were talking about him earlier about how he says things but he may not really mean them, but I don't care right now." She smiled up at him and gave him a devious grin. "but right now, I am just giving him a taste of his own medicine." She winked after saying that and before they realized that they were back on the field. She saw Inuyasha again with that same weird look on his face. But she just shrugged it off and they continued with practice.  
><em>"I know I can be thick, just like Matt said, but for some reason I want to say that Inuyasha is getting jealous…but why would he?"<em>

_Author's Note:  
><em>Boo, I'm sick. But I am still really happy that I got this chapter out. Please leave a comment, I will only update and post a new chapter if I get 2 reviews. (That is sad, but I need to know if people hate it or actually like it.) So c'mon people, its only 2 reviews! 2! That's it!

**Unedited 02/06/2012  
>Final Edit: November 30, 2012<br>**Sorry for the huge flashback in this chapter. But once I started writing it, I just couldn't stop :p


	5. New Chapter 5

**For some reason, when I edited the chapters (making the football to track and field change) it did not save or update the chapters with the new content. So here I am going back (with a new laptop that has none of the past chapters on it) and re-editing things. So if any of you were wondering why I might not have updated this story, well…this is your answer. Oh, and I am also going to place this little note in the beginning of each of my chapters. That way it will make things easier on you as the reader, and me as the author. happy reading!**_  
>Author's note: <em>And here come the excuses. Lol Well anyways, other than my hiatus from reading some stories and writing this chapter for this one, I have started school again. My goal is to have a new chapter every other week. And if I am doing really good, I might even put up a chapter in between. :p

Anyways, I think I am also going to try to make it a standard by asking at least 3 reviews before I really do put up a new chapter. So anyways, please read and enjoy and review!

_Disclaimer: _I was not born with enough talent to become a mangaka so thusly I shall never own any type of manga. Especially Inuyasha :p But all of the other characters in this story were all born within my silly little mind. :D I also do not own any of the songs that I may mention during this chapter

_**Recap:  
><strong>__"You know… I probably shouldn't say this for a few reasons, but you know he may not have meant what he said. I mean, -"  
>Natsumi cut him off with a sigh and continued "Yeah, I know, Kagome, Sango and I were talking about him earlier about how he says things but he may not really mean them, but I don't care right now." She smiled up at him and gave him a devious grin. "but right now, I am just giving him a taste of his own medicine." She winked after saying that and before they realized that they were back on the field. She saw Inuyasha again with that same weird look on his face. But she just shrugged it off and they continued with practice.<br>__"I know I can be thick, just like Matt said, but for some reason I want to say that Inuyasha is getting jealous…but why would he?"_

_**A New Start  
><strong>__Chapter 5: New Ordeals, Old Habits_

After practice, Natsumi helped the equipment manager clean up the team's equipment. During this time Matt had asked her again to see if she was cool to the idea of them walking home together. So, instead of leaving right after practice like she would have normally done, Natsumi hung around and waited around for Matt. Inuyasha came out of the locker room first and he saw her there. Puzzled, he walked up to her. "Hey how come you are still here? Lately you just bolt right after practice is over."  
>Natsumi just looked up at him and sighed but politely smiled while she responded to him, her voice sounding like she was talking to some stranger who had asked her the time. "It is because Matt asked if we could walk home together. He lives on the next street over from where we live."<br>"I know, remember I used to live here before you." Inuyasha smirked but he fidgeted as if he was still uncomfortable with her response. He was just about to say something else but was cut off when Natsumi started to walk away from him. He looked up and saw Matt coming out of the locker room. He waved over to her and he just rolled his eyes. He remembered Matt from when he used to live in town. He never really cared for the guy; a few of the other guys also didn't care for him as well. He also never really trusted him fully as well. Now that he was back in town, he could still say that he did not really trust the guy a hundred percent, so he followed. He followed them to keep an eye on him so he could try to figure out why he didn't really like him, and well the second reason was because he lived on the same street as Natsumi.

While they walked, Inuyasha watched them talk and watched them interact with one another. He could not help but feel a little bit possessive. To him it looked as if she was starting to like him, this got to him more and more by the second. He thought about this morning and how it was when they walked to school together. Both of them did not know one another, but they were able to talk freely and comfortably with one another. It was refreshing to him. Because of his personality and past, he was always so guarded when it came to certain things. That was probably what drew him to her. He could sense that she was on guard the whole time, except for this morning. Even now as he walks behind them like a neglected dog, he could tell that while they talked about a few things, she was guarding herself. Whatever her reasons were, he applauded her for it. But when he thought of why she feels that she has to do that, and what might have happened, it pained him for some reason.

Inuyasha thought back for a few minutes. Thinking of his own past, losing his parents, having to live with his brother, having to deal with friends going crazy, accusing him of certain things that he never did. He thought that he had reasons to not trust anyone. But for some odd reason, he always felt compelled to be able to trust Natsumi. It was probably because he could tell she usually had her guard up. That she herself did not really trust just about anyone. The three of them stopped when they were at Natsumi and Inuyasha's street. Inuyasha hung back behind Natsumi as she said goodbye, He and Matt just looked at each other and gave each other subtle head nods. Matt turned around and continued walking towards his street, Natsumi just stood there for a moment while she watched Matt keep walking. Inuyasha came up behind her and rested his arm on Natsumi's head, acting as if she was an armrest and sighed while slowly slipping into a daze, he was really tired. His fingers touched the side of her head and without thinking his fingers started to play with her hair. He felt her head turn towards him and that was all it took to snap him out of whatever he was in, he just looked down at her and gave a small smile. Happy at least that she didn't start yelling or saying something mean towards him.  
>"Can I help you? I am not an armrest…" He shrugged his shoulders and turned slightly looking more down on her.<br>"Ya know, it wouldn't be wise to fall for a guy like him." And that was all he said, he placed his arm back down to his side and started to walk down their street. Natsumi froze for a while, staring up at him. _"What in the world was that about? Plus who does he think he is trying to tell me who I should and shouldn't fall for. Plus it wasn't like as if I was going to…"_ Natsumi was going to say something but Inuyasha cut her off. He turned around and looked at her; his expression was firm but nice at the same time, just like how his voice sounded. "C'mon, let's get going." They walked a few steps down their street. Their order now reversed, Inuyasha in front and Natsumi in tow. He turned around again and they paused for the second time. "I remembered why I never really liked him and so I decided to give you a fair warning. It is none of my business whether or not you want to go after him, but I don't know, I just thought you should know." He turned back around and took a few steps. "I don't want to see you get hurt again." He mumbled, obviously she couldn't hear him because she was standing behind him and a few steps away. She just stood there for a while and took everything in. She looked back down the street the way Matt walked and then followed Inuyasha down their street.

"Why do you care?" Natsumi said. Inuyasha stopped and looked up to the sunset sky, he didn't say anything yet he knew what was coming. "Obviously you have a reason for telling me who to and who not to fall for. Is it some plan to try to get me to fall for you?" He didn't say anything; he was tired and didn't want to get into an argument. He turned around and looked at her. She stood there with a confused look on her face but it quickly turned to an angry expression. "Seriously? Is that what it is? You know, I thought you were different because you are Kagome and Sango's good friend. But no, I had to go against my gut feeling and actually try to trust you like I do with them." She angrily walks by him and he tries to grab her arm as she walks by. She anticipates it but still gets caught. "You really have some nerve…" She looks up at him and pauses a moment when he sees his expression. She thought for a moment as she tried to place what she saw in his eyes. _"What is it about this guy? The amount of expressions he gives off by just his eyes, it's crazy. Right now it almost looks as if he is sad…or concerned, and there is something else that I just cannot place. What is it…"_, the look in his eyes caused her to freeze.  
>"I know you do not want to believe me right now, and right now this is only going to seem so cliché. But I was only staying silent to hear you out. To hear what you have to say and wait until you are finished so then I can tell you what my true intentions are. But when you start judging me and calling me out on false intentions, that is where I cannot stay silent." Natsumi snorted and ripped her hand out of his grip.<br>"No, you're right, you are a great guy. No a terrific guy, you are trustworthy, friendly, all of the great traits a guy should have but not only that, you are probably one of the biggest assholes in the world! You must really get off on messing with people's emotions, one minute you are nice and easy to talk to, the next you are a complete ass! Just please do us both a favor and just stay away from me, I can't take any more of this bull." Natsumi quickly walked to her house and went inside leaving a slightly guilty feeling Inuyasha out on the sidewalk.

Inuyasha walked to his house quietly deep in thought. His brother said something to him when he walked into the front door but he was too caught up into his thoughts to register what his brother had just said to him. He thought of what had happened this morning. They had walked to school in peace; they listened to her ipod and had good topics to talk about. They didn't bicker, but they did tease each other a little, but it was all fun, both of them were laughing. He continued to think of what happened after. He saw Kagome and Sango that morning too as he was walking to his locker, he only greeted them because he wanted to hurry and get to homeroom so he could continue talking to Nastumi. But for some reason when they were talking he just wanted to push her over the edge. He didn't have any intentions of actually hurting her feelings; he just really wanted to bug her really bad. Inuyasha sighed as he sat at his desk and looked out his window at hers. He had fallen back into his old habit of going overboard with his jokes. He thought he got over that when he went out with Kagome. He was relentless in some of the things he did to her, but being the sweet and kind Kagome, she took most of it. Until one day she just could not handle his mean joking anymore. Inuyasha ran a hand through his hair and sighed again. _"I have to apologize. I didn't want to lose her; she was a really cool and interesting person. I still want to find out why she moved, why she only has two friends, why is she so guarded all of the time? I guess I really went overboard this time."_

Meanwhile, Natsumi went directly upstairs, her dog right at her heels. Her mother wasn't home yet so she knew that her mother had to stay late. She went back down and got a bag of chips and went back up to her room. She started to play some music and sing along. She really needed to relax. She then grabbed her book that she had been reading recently and laid down on her bed. She started to feel uncomfortable in her room because there was no breeze. She looked at her shut window and hesitantly she opened it halfway. Then she went back to her book while kicking her feet to the rhythm of the music.

Inuyasha sat there for a few more minutes before he got out his phone. He went under his contacts and started calling a number that he recently saved. He could hear her open her window a little, and then he could start to hear the sound of her music coming from inside her room. He heard his phone dial the number and he waited, he heard slight muttering until he got an answer on the other side.

"Uh, yeah… hello?" Natsumi said. At first she was hesitant when she did not recognize the number that was calling her but then she saw the name of the caller pop up on the screen and she let out a sigh and answered.  
>"Hey,"<br>"Can I help you?"  
>"Umm go to the window…"<br>"Fine." Natsumi hung up and she headed over to the window, she picked up the little radio remote that was on the seat and opened up the window more. She waited until he finished opening his window and placed a hand on her hip. "So what do you need?"  
>Inuyasha paused a little trying to form his words but was having trouble doing so. "umm I just wanted to talk about earlier…"<br>Natsumi held out her arm with the remote and turned up the volume. "I'm sorry what? I didn't hear you…"  
>Inuyasha sighed again but repeated himself one more time but slightly louder. Natsumi repeated her action and giggled to herself a little when she noticed he was started to get riled up. Despite still being angry at him, she still found it fun to tease him. He growled and leaned out his window and repeated himself again but louder only to have Natsumi repeat her action; she smiled and held a hand up to her ear and shook her head.<br>"I'm sorry it seems I just cannot hear a word your saying."

Inuyasha was not happy at all. He angrily walks away from his window and stomps out of his room. Natsumi sees him walk away and giggles in triumph and heads to the center of her room where she dances a little to her music. She gets a little carried away while trying to let go of the day's frustrations. She picks up her Chunky and spins around the room a little. She starts singing along to the song. She didn't hear the doorbell ring downstairs because of her music. All of a sudden, Inuyasha barges into her room and sees that her back was to the door. She was still swaying side to side with Chunky in her arms while singing along. He growls and barks out her name as he goes over to her and grabs her shoulder to get her attention. It worked, she was shocked to see him right in front of her in her house and so close too. She held her breath and with the same small remote that was still in her hand, she pushed the pause button. A small beep comes from the radio and Inuyasha glances over at it to make sure that it was not going to interrupt him again, then he looked back at her with his angry face. "Look, I really don't know why you are acting this way but this is no way to act when someone is trying to apologize to you! It's pissing me off!" Inuyasha's face was a light shade of red, Natsumi thought he must have been really angry and she took a few steps back away from him, only not to go too far because of his grip on her arm. She looked down at the ground not really sure what she should say or do.  
>"U-um..."<br>"Look, I know I said a few things that could have been hurtful and I guess I'm sorry, it is a bad habit that I thought Kagome helped me get out of, but apparently… not, so much." He ran a hand through his hair and sighed  
>Not really used to having someone apologize to her right away she just watched him for a while. "I uh…"<br>Inuyasha grumbled and he still griped her shoulder. "well?!" He said, it was easy to tell that he was getting really annoyed at her hesitation.  
>"I uh, yeah… thanks…" She paused again, a part of her still wondered if she really wanted to accept his apology. She thought about it for a second longer and shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, I guess I forgive you…to some extent." It didn't take a genius to realize that she was on the fence of accepting his apology a hundred percent, along with fully trusting him. Inuyasha's face lightened up a little bit, he was about to say something but she cut him off. "But this doesn't mean that I am not going to keep an eye on you. She then allowed a small smile come out across her lips, this let him let out a sigh of relief. "You know, apologies are totally <em>not<em> your thing…you kinda suck at them..." They both laughed and Inuyasha shook his head.  
>"Well, you weren't making things easy yourself." Inuyasha countered, there was a faint ting of pink upon his cheeks.<br>Natsumi looked back down at the ground unsure of what to say or do next. She then noticed that he was still holding onto her shoulder. She quietly cleared her throat, shifted Chunky into the arm where his hand was and took her free hand and taped his hand. Inuyasha confused looked down and released abruptly when he realized he was still holding onto her.  
>"S-sorry…again."<br>She smiled and shrugged her shoulders, "no worries…" she paused trying to think of something to say quickly as she noticed the awkward silence starting to set in. "Uhh…Have you studied at all for the upcoming math test?"  
>"Nah! Studying is stupid." He slumped to one side and crossed his arms. She just looked up at him and shook her head and laughed.<br>"No, it can be important, well at least if you understand the concepts of the thing."  
>"Like when?"<br>"Uhh, a lot of times, I just don't know yet duh." She sighed and put her hand on her hip, "go back home, grab your math stuff and come back over, we can study for it together."

Inuyasha humphed and let out a really long sigh. "I still don't see a point in it." He shrugged his shoulders again and continued. "But I guess; now I will have something to do tonight then." He smirked and started to head out.  
>Natsumi just made a face at him but then remembered that she actually wanted to take a shower. "Just take your time because I want to take a shower before we start 'kay?"<br>Inuyasha just nodded and headed out of her bedroom. When he got down the stairs she shouted after him "When you come back, just come on in…just in case I am not out of the shower yet."  
>"Kay." Inuyasha headed out the front door and started to go back to his house. Once he left Natsumi gathered a change of clothes and headed to her bathroom to start her shower. Once in the shower she started to think of the last time that she had studied with a friend. "<em>It has been a while, but whenever I would study with someone, it used to always be Jennifer, Susan, Troy and I…but in the end, we would just goof off and not get any real studying done. If I really wanted good studying, I would always join up with Jonathan and his brother in the library. Oh, and Ayame, she was always really studious and smart as well." <em>While washing her hair she thought of one particular time she went out to study.  
><strong>Ayame and Natsumi got dropped off at the city's library when her mother had to go into work. It was during the fall season so it was starting to get cold and this year it was particularly rainy. Once inside the two girls headed over to a specific side of the library where they would always study. Today they were supposed to meet up with Jonathan and his brother. They were already there when they showed up. Phillip looked like he was concentrating hard on a particular assignment, and Jonathan was just reading a book for a report he had to do. Phillip acknowledged the two girls with a glance up from his laptop and a quick raise of his eyebrows. Jonathan didn't see the girls approach from behind him and said hi when they started taking the empty seats at the table. Ayame went and sat next to Jonathan so Natsumi took the last seat next to Phillip. She was silently grateful that she was closer to the outlet if she needed to plug in her laptop. Ayame got back up so she could try to hunt down a book that she needed for her report. Natsumi was unsure where to start off with her studies so she started to look at funny pictures online. She would smile and laugh inwardly when one would particularly strike her as funny. Phillip dazed out of the sentence that he was writing for a moment and glanced at her computer. He shook his head and opened up a window and proceeded to write a message. A few seconds, Natsumi had a message pop up in her IM box. It startled her for a second because she forgot that she was logged on but proceeded to check the message. It was from Phillip. She furrowed her eyebrows for a second and looked over at him. He saw her out of the corner of his eye and slightly nodded his head to silently tell her to go ahead and read it.<br>**_**Westly: aren't you supposed to be studying? **_**She smiled when she read the message and quickly typed her response.**_**  
>DuhDino: I am, but I just don't really know where to really begin. <strong>_**She sent the message and waited for a response.  
><strong>_**Westly: What subjects to you have tests coming up in?  
>DuhDino: ugh, I have a quiz in History, a test in Science and Math, a paper due for my computer class, a project to finish for my art class…and that's it.<br>Westly: Wow  
>Westly: Do they all take place this week?<br>DuhDino: no. my paper is due next week, along with my art project. But my History quiz is the day after tomorrow, and the tests are on Friday.  
><strong>_**Natsumi slumped in her seat and crossed her arms on the desk and rested her head down in them. She tilted her head with a sigh and looked up at Phillip. She watched his reaction and watched him type a response. She waited for the tiny ping sound to come from her computer to look up at the screen.  
><strong>_**Westly: Need help?  
><strong>_**Natsumi looked back up at him and gave him a sheepish grin and nodded her head. Phillip just smiled and chuckled a little while he shook his head. He typed another sentence and sent it to Natsumi.  
><strong>_**Westly: Okay, History first.  
><strong>_**Feeling slightly guilty she looked back up at him as he started to reach into her backpack to retrieve her history book. "Are you sure?" Phillip just nodded to her and once the book was out he looked over and responded quietly and casually.  
>"Yeah, I needed a break anyways." Natsumi nodded and pulled out her binder and flipped to her History class's study itinerary. Phillip then reached down and grabbed the bottom part of her seat and tugged her closer so they both could look over the book. For the rest of the time that they were there, he remained helping her study while Jonathan and Ayame occasionally helped each other review their reports. Ayame's cousin that was visiting came to pick her up first. Since Natsumi's mother was working tonight, she was going to walk with the brothers towards her house, until they had to go separate ways.<strong>

**When they reached the spot where they go separate ways, Jonathan just mumbled a goodbye and goodnight before walking off first. Natsumi watched him take a few steps and looked up at Phillip, "Is he okay?" She asked.  
>He nodded and watched after him too for a second then looked down at her. It had started to drizzle a little and he started fumbling with his backpack. "Yeah, just track practice really kicked his ass today. Coach made his team do extra exercises in the rain at one point." Natsumi nodded then turned to look down the street. The rain clouds made the sunset sky look as dark as night. She then looked back up to Phillip to thank him for helping her with her studies and goodnight but he just stepped in front of her and started to pull her along. She looked at him confused but then saw that he had an umbrella over their heads.<br>"W-what are you doing?"  
>"walking you home. It's really dark, and it's starting to rain."<br>"oh…Okay, well thank you."  
><strong>Natsumi then reminisced for a few more minutes before finishing up in the bathroom. A lot of days she really missed Phillip. She smiled when she remembered when she found out his IM name. It had taken her a few minutes trying to think of where she had heard the name. But that time Phillip just cut her off and said it anyways. It was from The Princess Bride, one of his all-time favorite movies. It was one of her favorite movies too, but she favored Robin Hood, Men In Tights just a little bit more.

After Inuyasha left Natsumi's house he went up to his room again and gathered his things. Since she had told him to hang back for a few minutes because she was going to shower first, he decided to do the same. He jumped in the shower and started to bathe. Once done he went downstairs in his towel and grabbed a drink from the refrigerator. He managed to drink the entire thing before he made it back upstairs to his room. He changed his clothes and started to head back downstairs with his stuff that he would need. He looked at the time and thought that he had spent enough time waiting; he started out the door to go back to her house. As he walked up to her house he thought to send a quick text to his brother telling him that he was going to be next door. He normally never told his brother where he was going or what he was going to be doing, unless he didn't want to be disturbed. He did as she said and let himself inside. He started to head up the stairs towards her room when he heard water still running. Surprised that she was still in the shower he just shook his head and entered her room. On her bed her little dog was snoozing away. He quietly padded into the room and sat down next to her. The movement on the bed woke up the snoozing puppy and she was startled to find the teen next to her. He found a toy nearby and they started playing around while he waited for her. He sat for a moment on her bed. He listened to her in the shower, he could hear the water running, and he could hear typical showering sounds. Not too long after, he heard her turn off the water. He heard her move the shower curtain aside; he heard her step out of the shower and a heavy fabric movement. He started thinking more as he listened more. He started to think of how she is when she gets out of the shower. Did she dry her hair first then dry off her body, or did she do things the opposite way. He imagined her doing both ways while he waited. His thoughts were starting to go more mature when he caught his train of thought when he noticed it starting to go astray. He started thinking of all the teenage boys think about. He was actually starting to feel slightly guilty of it. Especially when it was someone he was actually trying to get close to and know better on a personal level. For once, he didn't want to move at a fast pace when someone intrigued him.

He was still deep in thought, thinking about other things when Natsumi walked in. His presence startled her, "Inuyasha! What the heck are you doing in here already? I thought I said to hang back for a while because I was going to take a shower." for a few seconds she let her frustration build, but then she just let go of it. This snaped him out of his daze and he looked up at her and smirked.  
>"Oh what, no towel this time? What a shame.." He asked with a smirk when he looked at her and noticed that she had changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top after her shower. She crossed her arms and stuck her hip out to one side and sighed.<br>"Pervert."  
>He chuckled a little and shrugged his shoulders, "what do you expect, I am just a guy." Natsumi heaved a heavy sigh and just shook her head; her hair still slightly damp clung to her shoulders. Inuyasha held up his notebook and textbook and yawned.<br>"So where are we going to study?" He asked her. She just shrugged her shoulders in response and motioned to a small table that was available.  
>"I don't know, we could stay in here if you want, I have a small table that I sometimes use." Inuyasha then made his way over to it and sat down on the floor, he then leaned back on his arms and watched her get her stuff out of her backpack. Because he was still in his examination and thought mode, he started to watch her really closely as she did so, he noticed the muscles in her legs as she walked across the room, he noticed that she was skinny, but not the sickly skinny that many girls try to achieve through dieting. But it was a healthy size, he noticed that her body was really nicely built, and in his mind was evenly proportioned, not to mention that she actually was not bad looking at all. He noticed she had a few scars that were noticeable and easily recognized as child hood accidents, yet he was still curious to hear the stories behind them. He inwardly smiled when he thought of a few of his stories from his child hood. <em>"Another time I guess."<em> His face started to flush because he was starting to notice just about every detail. From how smooth her skin looked, to the single stray drops that occasionally made their way down the strands of her hair. There was laughter and movement right next to him that snapped Inuyasha out of his daze. He shook his head while trying to clear his mind, _"I am not sure how long I can stay here, I am beat. Damn practice." _He looked back up towards Natsumi and watched her grab a couple of pens and pencils off of her desk and join Inuyasha at her small table.  
>"I know studying can be horrid, but it's not that bad." Natsumi gently pushed his shoulder and Inuyasha snapped his head up and gave a grin.<br>"Oh, umm… what?" He hesitated. "I was thinking of something else."  
>"Do I want to know?"<br>Inuyasha chuckled and leaned forward slightly, "We can always find out…" His voice husky and soft. It made Natsumi instantly blush when she realized what he might have been thinking of. She grabbed her notebook and held it up in between them while hiding behind it.  
>"Wow Inuyasha! You are so perverted!." She heard laughter and she felt his hand on the top of her notebook as he gently and slowly put down her notebook shield.<br>"Oh man you are so easy to tease." He looked at her blushing face and smiled. Then that same smile turned into a devious grin and he leaned forward again. "But you know, you never said 'no'." He raised an eyebrow just when he was about to say something else, her notebook smacked him in the face. After suddenly becoming self-conscious, she got up and went to her closet to get a light zip up hoodie. He still chuckled from behind her but he just opened up her mathbook. "I don't get why we have to do so many word problems"  
>She headed back and sat down next to him and looked at the book too. "Ugh I know, they are my nemesis. I could do so many other things, but when it comes to word problems, it is like Superman vs. Kryptonite, but I become stupid on top of becoming weak against them. I would rather be alone in a zombie apocalypse fighting them off with my bare fists than to have to solve another word problem." Inuyasha started laughing and Natsumi just glared at him then she shoved his shoulder again. "H-hey! It's not funny! I am serious. Don't laugh at me!" She pouted.<br>"Don't worry, first of all you wouldn't be alone in the apocalypse cause I would rather be doing that instead of word problems too." He hesitated for a moment." Hey, wait…That would be so awesome, beating up and fighting all the zombies, I would look so cool with a huge ass sword and it would be even cooler if in one swing it would release an attack that could wipe out dozens or even thousands! And then I could ride around on a motorcycle…Oh man that would be bad ass." Natsumi raised an eyebrow at him, _"Someone is getting too excited about a sword…let alone getting excited about zombies."_ He then glanced over at her, "hmm, I could see you using some sort of gun, like a big one too. That would be cool, but stupid because what if you run out of bullets?" Natsumi was about to say something but cut her off. "Eh, no matter, because I will be there so you can just hide behind me." He puffed out his chest as he started to stroke his own ego.  
>"Uhh, yeeah okay…who is the one with the stupid idea? If you want to compare stupid ideas, I would rather have a gun for a short while, until I can get to a store or something so then I could reload, but why would you want to ride a motorcycle during a zombie apocalypse? I mean you are just asking for it then. You can't ride through a large crowd of zombies without getting turned yourself. Now unless you have a hummer or an SUV or something. You would need that car to become your home on wheels, while being able to withstand some hard hits."<br>Inuyasha just stared at her. "Woah, someone is really into zombies…"  
>Natsumi just rolled her eyes and sighed while flipping to the right page in her book and opening her notebook to do the homework problems in. "No, I just know a lot about it because zombies are like the one horror subject that I cannot tolerate. They are my only one and true arch nemesis."<br>"Don't all superheroes have only one arch nemisis?"  
>"Who said I am a superhero?" She stuck out her tongue. "But I am just saying, if it is something that is your downfall, you are going to know a lot about it and you are going to want to know ways to help prevent the worst during those times."<br>"Hmm okay you got me there." He watched her as she continued to flip through the pages and then opened up his own notebook.  
>"So, back to math, do you have any clue on how to do some of these?"<br>"Vaguely…"  
>They started to do some practice problems that were in the book. Inuyasha at one point started to space out. He looked at Natsumi, her hair was still damp and in certain areas it was starting to dry. He leaned forward on the table, he could feel his mind beginning to grow foggy as he zoned out. <em>"Now that I actually think about it…I wonder, does she dry off hair first? Her hair, it looks so soft right now. No frizz, no curls, no waves. It is just straight, it looks like silk the way it's still damp like that." <em>Without really thinking he reached out towards her shoulder. He felt the tips of his fingers touch her hair. He went further so he could gently grab strands of her hair. The sudden feeling of someone playing with her hair caught Natsumi off guard. She sat up straight and looked towards him. He kept his focus on her hair. She could tell that he was zoning out, but the expression on his face was content. Inuyasha finally noticed Natsumi looking at him and he smiled, his hand still playing with her hair. His expression then turned to a smirk and Natsumi raised an eyebrow.  
>"Do you dry off your body first? Or your hair?" Natsumi just looked at him.<br>"What type of a question is that!" He shook his head and looked down at the book as he started to copy down a question.  
>"Just something I was wondering earlier."<br>"Geez, from some of the things I have heard about your friend Miroku, and past stories about you, it seems as if he has rubbed off on you." She shook her head and turned her attention back to the problem she was working on. A few minutes later, without looking up Inuyasha pipes up again.  
>"Well? What do you do first?"<br>Natsumi just threw an eraser at him and continued working.

Throughout the night, they would trade off explaining different problems to each other. They took a small break to eat something for dinner and after they watched a bit of television while they let the food settle. After they watched a few episodes of a program, they headed back upstairs to finish the homework. They talked about different things sometimes when they got off track but they always made it back to homework. It was Natsumi's turn to try to explain how to do a problem but when she finished and turned to look at Inuyasha, she noticed that he was fast asleep. "Hmm I guess I am not the only one who is tired." She let him sleep and she continued to try to finish her homework. She liked having his presence around, sometimes Chunky didn't cut it. And after thinking of her little dog, she looked up to try to locate her. She knew she was on her bed, and that was where she was, just snoring away. She looked back down at her paper she only had a few more problems left, but her eyes were starting to hurt. She debated whether to take a nap or not but she thought she should at least finish the few problems that she had left.

Natsumi's mother came home a few hours later and walked up stairs to see if her daughter was in her room. She wondered if she was still awake. She saw the light spill out of her daughters open doorway so she continued up the stairs. When she took a few steps into the room, she saw both her daughter and Inuyasha asleep on the floor. She could tell that they were just working on their homework, and nothing else a mother should worry about. She smiled down at the both of them and left Natsumi's bedroom only to return with a blanket for Inuyasha. She placed it over him then went to Natsumi's bed to get another blanket. After she was done giving them blankets, she turned out the light and went back downstairs to her bedroom to get ready for bed herself.

_Author's Note:  
><em>okay I tried to make this chapter really long because of my hiatus. Please read and review. Tell me what you are thinking.  
>Here is a question for you guys. What do you think Natsumi's mother does for a living?<p>

**Unedited 03/04/2012  
>Final Edit: December 6, 2012<strong>

Okay, this chapter took me longer than I expected to edit. My apologies. But now that I am finished with this one, I am starting the next chapter. Stay tuned for more of the edited chapters! :3


	6. New Chapter 6

**For some reason, when I edited the chapters (making the football to track and field change) it did not save or update the chapters with the new content. So here I am going back (with a new laptop that has none of the past chapters on it) and re-editing things. So if any of you were wondering why I might not have updated this story, well…this is your answer. Oh, and I am also going to place this little note in the beginning of each of my chapters. That way it will make things easier on you as the reader, and me as the author. happy reading!**_  
>Author's note:<br>_Hello everyone. Okay first things first, I edited all of my chapters so now instead of it being a varsity football team, they are now on varsity track team. (also mentioned in my second authors note) also just go back and read, there were a few other changes that were made. Please enjoy, and review!

_Disclaimer: _I was not born with enough talent to become a mangaka so thusly I shall never own any type of manga. Especially Inuyasha :p But all of the other characters in this story were all born within my silly little mind. :D I also do not own any of the songs that I may mention during this chapter

_**Recap:  
><strong>__Throughout the night, they would trade off explaining different problems to each other. They took a small break to eat something for dinner and after they watched a bit of television while they let the food settle. After they watched a few episodes of a program, they headed back upstairs to finish the homework. They talked about different things sometimes when they got off track but they always made it back to homework. It was Natsumi's turn to try to explain how to do a problem but when she finished and turned to look at Inuyasha, she noticed that he was fast asleep. "Hmm I guess I am not the only one who is tired." She let him sleep and she continued to try to finish her homework. She liked having his presence around, sometimes Chunky didn't cut it. And after thinking of her little dog, she looked up to try to locate her. She knew she was on her bed, and that was where she was, just snoring away. She looked back down at her paper she only had a few more problems left, but her eyes were starting to hurt. She debated whether to take a nap or not but she thought she should at least finish the few problems that she had left._

_Natsumi's mother came home a few hours later and walked up stairs to see if her daughter was in her room. She wondered if she was still awake. She saw the light spill out of her daughters open doorway so she continued up the stairs. When she took a few steps into the room, she saw both her daughter and Inuyasha asleep on the floor. She could tell that they were just working on their homework, and nothing else a mother should worry about. She smiled down at the both of them and left Natsumi's bedroom only to return with a blanket for Inuyasha. She placed it over him then went to Natsumi's bed to get another blanket. After she was done giving them blankets, she turned out the light and went back downstairs to her bedroom to get ready for bed herself._

_**A New Start  
><strong>__Chapter 6: Old Stories, New Memories_

Natsumi awoke the next morning with her body stiff and really sore in places. She was still really tired from yesterday, and she could tell that she didn't get the best sleep in the world. She tried to move around but found it with great difficulty. There was an uncommon weight around her waist. Without opening her eyes she managed to turn over onto her back and reach down towards the weight. She thought of Chunky, that little puppy loved to cuddle, but this is the first time she has ever laid on top of Natsumi. When her fingers touched the object her mind became puzzled. It wasn't fuzzy like Chunky, yet, there was some hair. Her fingers roamed the unfamiliar surface while trying to think of what it was without opening her eyes. By now, Natsumi heard her puppy let out a big sigh. But it came from across the bedroom. Natsumi finally cracked an eyelid open. It closed instantly because the morning sunlight washing in from her window landed straight in her line of vision. She reached up and rubbed her eyes to try to get herself to wake up. Something stirred besides her moving the weight around her waist. Before she could lower her hands from her face a song that she used as a text alert went off. This caused the thing besides her to stir more and it made her wake up instantly.  
>"Inuyasha?" She mumbled, uncertain if she was even starting to remember correctly. She remembered studying with him, but she doesn't remember him ever leaving. She silenced her phone and then she managed to sit up, find her glasses, and for the first time that morning, she knew what happened. She just sat there staring down at Inuyasha still fast asleep on her bedroom floor. She poked his shoulder roughly and there was a grumbling sound as he began to move away from her poking. She continued then hissed out his name.<br>"Inuyasha! What the heck?"  
>"Ugh…"<br>"What are you doing still here…I mean, did you not go home last night?"  
>"Ugh…"<br>"Oh geez, I didn't tell my mother anything about you spending the night… I hope she isn't mad." Finally the Inuyasha lump on the ground sat up and Natsumi looked up at him.  
>"Bathroom." Was all Inuyasha finally uttered. Natsumi just looked at him and pointed down her hallway. He got up and went to use the facilities. Natsumi just went straight downstairs as she heard the bathroom door close. She found her mother in her room and they started to talk.<br>"So umm, sorry about Inuyasha mom."  
>"Oh dear, don't worry. I know you guys were studying and don't worry yourself. You know not everyone is going to betray you. And plus, I have not seen you talk so much to one person ever since we moved here."<br>"That's because he just so happens to be our neighbor."  
>"You didn't talk to the old neighbors a lot. But it does not matter; you have not tolerated someone as much as him before we moved. I mean, he has been over more times in one month than Kagome and Sango in a year!"<br>"But…"  
>"Seriously dear, don't worry and I just want you to have friends and be able to hang out with someone again. It really worries me when I see you just doing nothing when you used to be so socially active."<br>"Okay mum. Thanks."  
>"Of course hun, now I also know you guys are late, but can I make you guys some breakfast?"<br>"Sure, sounds great thanks…wait…late? What time is it?" Natsumi looked at the clock and gasped but then tried to relax back down because she was not in trouble, with her mother at least. "Okay, but we should still try to hurry right?"  
>"Sounds like a good idea." Her mother smiled at her and gave her daughter a small hug.<p>

As Natsumi walked back upstairs, she tripped on one of the stairs because she miss judged the step. She just let out a slight grumble and continued up the steps. When she got back into her room, Inuyasha was gathering his belongings. She continued looking around as an awkward silence started to settle in the room. She started trying to think of something to say to him to make things less awkward.  
>"Sorry, I didn't mean to crash on ya like that." Inuyasha began. Natsumi looked at him as he spoke. "Practice just really kicked my ass last night. One thing I do not like about this coach is that every so often all of the track members have to practice each of their events."<br>"Oh yeah, I think I noticed that one day, I think it was the first day of practice you were doing the sprints and the distance running's, right? What are your other events?" Natsumi asked while folding the blankets. Inuyasha came over to her to help her with one blanket, both of them at each end of it and they continued to fold it, they would shake it periodically to get out the wrinkles. They stepped together and placed their corners with the others.  
>"I also do hurdles, high jump and the long jump." Inuyasha smirked with his puffed out chest while he boasted. "Why are you so curious all of the sudden?" He slid his hands down the blanket and took hold of the loop at the bottom. He brought it up to his waist, "are you going to start watching me throughout the practices?" He chuckled a little and Natsumi just rolled her eyes and threw a crumpled up paper ball at him that was in her hand.<br>"You wish." Inuyasha stepped up to her again to place his edge with hers, their knuckles brushing up against each other's again.  
>"So what if I do?"<br>Natsumi looked at him with her eyebrow raised, he said it without any pause, like as if he expected her to say that. He just looked at her. Her cheeks slightly flushed, she needed to change the topic and direction of this conversation and fast. "W-why do you do so many events?" She asked.  
>He shrugged his shoulders and put the folded blanket on her bed. "I don't know, probably just because I can." He turned back around and faced her while picking up another blanket to fold. She stepped up to help him fold this one this time. "You didn't answer my question though."<br>_"Crap…right back to where we started…" _She thought as they continued to fold the blanket. She looked away to try to avoid his gaze.

. "W-what…" She looked up at him and watched him while his face held the same expression as he had when he asked her the question in the first place. He took the folded blanket and set it down on her bed. "Oh geez, do not start to get all mushy on me!" She turned towards him and held up her arms in an 'x' formation. "We totally just met!"  
>Inuyasha could not hold back, he wanted to start to mess with her, to challenge her; he took a step forward. She saw his expression too. She had a feeling she knew what was coming next; he took another step forward. "First let me get this straight, you would have no objection if we had known each other for a longer period of time?"<br>"T-that's not what I meant…" She stammered; she tried to take a deep breath to get her nerves under control as she took a step back towards her desk. He raised an eyebrow at her and took two more steps as she took another one back. She was barley touching her desk now as he began to speak again.  
>"Okay, well I get that you may not like all of the super mushy things. Good, that makes it easier for me. But don't worry I know what you were implying." He took another few steps forward with a very devious grin on his face; she bumped into her desk with her cheeks still stained pink.<p>

Natsumi took in a deep breath to calm herself. Her cheeks still red but she managed to keep her cool. "S-stop messing with. Plus, I know you are just trying to tease me or to get a rise out of me. But I am going to start getting used to the way you are acting and so, very soon you are not going to get any reaction from me."  
>"Oh, is that so?" Inuyasha wanted to back away a little at first, but something inside him was tempting him to go further with what he was doing. "Why would you say something like that?" He asked with his chest starting to puff out. Something inside him started to grow with a feral excitement. At first he was confused by this certain feeling, but quickly grew to like it. He accepted her challenge and asserted his own dominance. He crossed his arms and shifted his weight, "You are the one that seems to always assume that I am just messing with you." Natsumi crossed her arms against her chest, while trying to stand up straight<br>"Inuyasha, just stop okay?"  
>"Why?"<br>Natsumi reaches up towards his chest as he takes a final step closer, she tries to push him away but he stood firmly in front of her; she could feel his body heat through his shirt, so she took a side step to try to get around him. "B-because! Ev-"  
>"Guys breakfast is ready!" Natsumi's mother cut her off. Natsumi let out a sigh of relief and internally thanked her mother for the change in subjects. Natsumi quickly took another step away from Inuyasha and started to walk out her room with Inuyasha in tow and Chunky bringing up the rear.<br>"Your mom made breakfast for us?" Inuyasha asked as they headed down the stairs.  
>"Yeah, whenever she is home in the morning and is able to wake up early enough she tries to make breakfast." Natsumi said with a smile, she loosely held onto the railing while they walked down the stairs; too many times, like this morning for example, when she does not hold onto railing she usually stumbles on a stair.<br>"Oh cool, it has been a long time since I have had an actual breakfast! Usually I just have ramen for breakfast and dinner. Heck I would have it breakfast, lunch and dinner if I could, but Kagome got on me a while back and said that eating nothing but ramen isn't very good for you. She says that it's best to eat other things for the nutrients and blah blah blah." Natsumi's mother greeted them at the bottom of the stairs with a chuckle.  
>"If you would like, you can come over in the mornings and join Natsumi for breakfast before you guys head off to school."<br>"Aw really? That would be really cool, but are you sure it would be okay?"  
>"Oh don't worry, and if you want some mornings, I could even make you a ramen but with breakfast garnishments, it's one of Natsumi's favorites on chilly mornings." Inuyasha looked at Natsumi in amazement, his expression reminded her of a small child and she just laughed a little. "And also on the days where you have meets, I would be happy to at least make your lunch, if I am able to of course, some nights I work the late shift and I don't get back home till really late so I am not able to get up early enough to make breakfast."<br>"Thats awesome! Count me in! Natsumi, just send me a text the night before or something to give me a heads up kay?" Inuyasha didn't give her enough time to respond but turned his attention back to her mother. "Where do you work if you don't mind me asking?"  
>"Oh, Natsumi hasn't told you?" The three of them all gathered around the kitchen counter, the two teenagers sitting on the stools and Natsumi's mother in the kitchen leaning up against the counter with a cup of coffee and toast in her hand. She took a sip before continuing, "I am a nurse over at the local hospital. And her father is in the service. He is in the mechanics end of things, he helps build and repair just about everything they have."<br>"Oh wow, that's pretty cool. My father used to own a company and my mother didn't do much, she would volunteer most of the time to keep herself preoccupied with something until she had me. But," Inuyasha hesitated for a second, "but they passed away in an accident, so now I live with my half-brother, and right now, he is the one who is taking over my father's company." Natsumi looked at him; she didn't know that about him. She felt bad, "_why didn't Kagome or Sango ever tell me about that? It is kind of important. I'll be sure to ask them later today."  
><em>"Oh you poor dear." Natsumi's mother cooed and Natsumi couldn't help but roll her eyes.  
>Inuyasha smiled and shook his head, "nah, we manage. Heck, we do a lot better now because my brother and I used to hate each other's guts. Now, it's more of a tolerance thing."<p>

They finished breakfast with idle chatter and the two teens headed back upstairs, Inuyasha grabbed his stuff and headed back to his house to change his shirt, and grab whatever else he was going to need for the rest of the day. Natsumi changed her top at well. She just put on a tank top and one of her big baggy sweaters that made her feel comfortable no matter where she was. The neck was so stretched out that it usually hung off of one shoulder. It sparked the idea in her head to use a different bag because it reminded her that her left shoulder still really hurt from the day before so after she changed and redid her bag for school. Instead of using her backpack, she used one of her book bags that she could carry as a purse on her other shoulder. Out of habit she put her bag on her left shoulder and instantly winced when she realized it was a stupid idea and she grumbled at her body for doing things out of habit. Before she left her bedroom, she grabbed an old compact mirror and checked her eye liner. It had smudged a little so she fixed it and touched it up quickly and headed downstairs. Her mother and her exchanged goodbyes to each other and before Natsumi went out the door her mother just reassured her that everything was going to be okay. Once outside, she paused on her porch. She noted that Inuyasha wasn't back outside yet so she walked over to his house, she sat on his porch and started listening to her ipod. A few minutes later there was a nudge on her shoulder, she looked up to see Inuyasha putting on his backpack with his track bag strapped sideways across his chest. She took out one ear bud and stood up.  
>"So, what are we listening to today?" Inuyasha said with a smirk.<br>Natsumi shrugged, "I don't know, what do you want to hear?"  
>"Hmm, not sure, but for some reason, I really want to listen to some oldies." Natsumi nodded and gave him an ear bud and started to go through her library as they started to walk towards school.<br>"Oh, here we go, this one is one of my favorites." The song Hey Jude by The Beetles started playing.  
>"Really? How come?"<br>"Mmm," She hesitated before continuing, but she remembered the things that her mother was saying. She sighed and continued, "well it can always make me smile a bit when I listen to this song, also, the other reason why I like the song is because they left in the 'woah' and the 'bloody hell' in the recording." Inuyasha looked at her slightly puzzled but she continued, "at like, the 3 minute mark or really close to there, you hear either them go 'whoa' and a few seconds later it goes 'bloody hell.'"  
>"Huh? They do, why? I never noticed it."<br>"I know! That's the really cool thing about this song I think. It has been said that it is John Lennon who says it, like he says a bad word then someone else says 'whoa' then a few seconds later you hear 'bloody hell' because when he was doing a vocal backing, Barry sent him the headphone level too loud and as a jerk reaction he accidentally threw the cans on the ground; and since it was mixed in with the main vocal, it couldn't be removed." Natsumi had a big grin on her face while explaining it. She looked down at the ipod to look at the time. She noticed it was close to the time she had previously mentioned and paused it. She took out her ear bud and handed it to him. "Here here, listen" she smiled and pressed play again. They looked at each other, his face had slight doubt but she just had a grin on her face. She looked at the time and knew what he was hearing, she hummed along with the rest of the song as he continued to listen. After he heard both parts, he took out her piece and handed it back to her with a smile. _"Wow, he smiled. No smirk, no grin no polite smile. He actually just smiled…"_ She blushed but forced it back down.  
>"Wow, that's really cool. I thought you were just yanking my chain for a moment there."<br>"Why would I make something like that up?"  
>"Dunno, but hey…" He hesitated while she put the ear bud back in her ear. She looked up at him when she noticed him hesitating. "Will you start going to my meets and watch me during practice?"<br>"What…uhh, yeah if you want me to. Then yeah, I try to support all of my friends when I can if they are on sports teams, and well you are lucky that I happen to have to go to all of your meets. So I guess it's a guaranteed thing." She grinned.  
>"Cool." He smiled again then turned back to her. "So you consider me your friend?" She rolled her eyes at his question.<br>"don't push your luck buster."  
>They continued to listen to different songs in the playlist that Inuyasha decided for the morning while they walked to school. On their walk Inuyasha noticed that Natsumi kept rubbing her left shoulder and touching it lightly. Curiosity got the best of him and he finally decided to ask her what was up.<br>"Hey, what's up with your shoulder?"  
>"Hmm?" Natsumi looked up at him. "Oh, it's nothing I think, just ever since yesterday after your chin hit my shoulder, it has been really tender." She reached up and touched it lightly, her sweater deciding to hang off of the left side so her skin was showing. Inuyasha noticed the red skin when she touched it and stopped her.<br>"Hey, did you even take a look at it?"  
>"No, why?" She stopped touching it and moved the fabric a little to the side so she could take a look at it. That was when they both saw that it was a really ugly looking bruise.<br>"Geez! How do you not notice something like that!"  
>"Hey! It was your chin that did this! Excuse me if I didn't catch it right off the bat!"<br>They both let out a 'humph' sigh and continued walking to school. After a few minutes Inuyasha looked back down at her shoulder and at her. She was looking at her phone checking her messages.  
>"Sorry…" He mumbled quietly, but loud enough for her to hear him. She hesitated after she heard him. But she just put her phone in her pocket and a smile crept onto her face. They finished their walk to school and once they arrived, they noticed that it was in between classes and it was time for their math class. They just headed straight for the class, she was trying to come up with something to say to Ms. Kaede about the two of them being really late.<p>

_**Author's Note:  
>Okay here is another chapter. I have a feeling that they are going to get shorter and shorter and take longer to update because I don't get any reviews or comments. I am not trying to sell my chapters for reviews, but I want to know how the story is doing with you guys and if people want to give input or anything. I also want to do bonus questions or something that will give the story more depth and insight. But I can't do that when people don't comment or review! _ c'mon peoples! I want to know my readers! :3 but anyways, thanks for reading.<strong>_

_**foxfaceish**_

_**Unedited 04/04/2012  
>Final Edit: January 5, 2013<strong>_

Okay, this edit update took so long because I was actually working on a Halloween and a Christmas/new years special. :p look for those soon, they are full of flashbacks, but in a good way


	7. New Chapter 7

**For some reason, when I edited the chapters (making the football to track and field change) it did not save or update the chapters with the new content. So here I am going back (with a new laptop that has none of the past chapters on it) and re-editing things. So if any of you were wondering why I might not have updated this story, well…this is your answer. Oh, and I am also going to place this little note in the beginning of each of my chapters. That way it will make things easier on you as the reader, and me as the author. happy reading!**_  
>Author's note: Okay well here is another chapter again. Please enjoy while you read and review after.<em>

_Disclaimer: _I was not born with enough talent to become a mangaka so thusly I shall never own any type of manga. Especially Inuyasha :p But all of the other characters in this story were all born within my silly little mind. :D I also do not own any of the songs that I may mention during this chapter

_**Recap:  
><strong>__He hesitated while she put the ear bud back in her ear. She looked up at him when she noticed him hesitating. "Will you start going to my meets and watch me during practice?"  
>"What…uhh, yeah if you want me to. Then yeah, I try to support all of my friends when I can if they are on sports teams, and well you are lucky that I happen to have to go to all of your meets. So I guess it's a guaranteed thing." She grinned.<br>"Cool." He smiled again then turned back to her. "So you consider me your friend?" She rolled her eyes at his question.  
>"don't push your luck buster."<br>They continued to listen to different songs in the playlist that Inuyasha decided for the morning while they walked to school. On their walk Inuyasha noticed that Natsumi kept rubbing her left shoulder and touching it lightly. Curiosity got the best of him and he finally decided to ask her what was up.  
>"Hey, what's up with your shoulder?"<br>"Hmm?" Natsumi looked up at him. "Oh, it's nothing I think, just ever since yesterday after your chin hit my shoulder, it has been really tender." She reached up and touched it lightly, her sweater deciding to hang off of the left side so her skin was showing. Inuyasha noticed the red skin when she touched it and stopped her.  
>"Hey, did you even take a look at it?"<br>"No, why?" She stopped touching it and moved the fabric a little to the side so she could take a look at it. That was when they both saw that it was a really ugly looking bruise.  
>"Geez! How do you not notice something like that!"<br>"Hey! It was your chin that did this! Excuse me if I didn't catch it right off the bat!"  
>They both let out a 'humph' sigh and continued walking to school. After a few minutes Inuyasha looked back down at her shoulder and at her. She was looking at her phone checking her messages.<br>"Sorry…" He mumbled quietly, but loud enough for her to hear him. She hesitated after she heard him. But she just put her phone in her pocket and a smile crept onto her face. They finished their walk to school and once they arrived, they noticed that it was in between classes and it was time for their math class. They just headed straight for the class, she was trying to come up with something to say to Ms. Kaede about the two of them being really late._

_**A New Start  
><strong>__Chapter 7: New Pages, Old Chapters_

When both Inuyasha and Natsumi walked into math, Ms. Kaede gave them a look, which made Natsumi want to laugh because she was an old lady with an eye patch so in reality, it was a really funny sight. But instead of asking questions as to why they weren't at school at the starting time, she just started to take roll as students kept filling their seats. During class, they got news that they were going to be doing a semester long project. They all had to write their names on a piece of paper and pass it up to the front of the room and put it in a small box. After everyone passed up their names, Ms. Kaede shook the box to mix up the names then she instructed all of the students to walk up to the front and choose their project partner's name. This process took a few minutes and in the end, Inuyasha and Natsumi did not get each other; instead Inuyasha got a girl in the class that looked like she could be Kagome's cousin. Her name was Kikyo, she had a very blunt and dry personality. She also seemed to hate everything especially Inuyasha, but to Natsumi it looked as if she had probably one of the biggest crushes on Inuyasha and didn't know how else to act around him. There was a girl like her at Natsumi's old school. It also reminded her of the old cartoon, 'Hey Arnold', with Helga. Natsumi giggled to herself when she thought of it while waiting for her turn to pick a partner. When it was her turn she saw that she was paired up with a semi cute nerdy looking guy, but she had a feeling that he was going to get on her nerves rather easily. Ms. Kaede instructed them all to sit in their pairs and once the students settled down, she asked if there were any questions so far. Inuyasha was the first to pipe up.  
>"Hey Old—" Inuyasha clears his throat to start again, "I mean, Kaede, can I switch partners? I want Natsumi to be my partner."<br>"Ugh! Why would you—" Kikyo glared at him, Natsumi saw a flash of hurt in her eyes and she was amazed that Kikyo actually had emotions. Some days Natsumi thought she was a zombie, no emotions, actions always cold, not to mention she had a really pale complexion.  
>"Cause she's smart!" Inuyasha instantly retorted.<br>"NO!" Both Ms. Kaede and Natsumi said in unison, this shocked Natsumi a little that her and her teacher said it at the same time. Natsumi did not think herself to be smart, especially when it came to math.  
>"Wha? Why!" Inuyasha pouted when he got the double rejection. He looked over at Natsumi shocked then looked grumpily back at the teacher.<br>"Because I want him" Natsumi pointed to her partner with an awkward smile. "Cause he just plain looks smarter than you!" She stated before the teacher gave her reasoning. Inuyasha became grumpy after that.  
>"Any more of ye have any other outbursts before we go forth?" Ms. Kaede stated, she waited a few seconds then when no one said anything she continued. "Alright, ye may not switch partners, but ye may work in a group. One person cannot do all of the work…" She kept going over the rules and requirements of the project, once done she handed out the packet. None of the students could not believe that it was almost 100 pages, they all immediately started to whine and complain about the quantity of pages. "Alright ye hormonal teenagers, ye can relax now. Like I have stated earlier, ye have until the end of the semester to finish the work. It will not be hard; there will also be times where ye will do the work in class…" She kept going but a lot of the students started to tune her out to look through the pages. She also gave them the rest of the period to get to know their partners better and to try to schedule meetings where they can do some of the work and projects together. Inuyasha didn't want to talk to Kikyo, and as the class progressed she became more and more frustrated with him. He just sat there with his arms crossed on his desk and his chin buried within his arms. Natsumi would look over at him periodically to just see him staring over at her. His dark eyes looked as if they pierced her fair colored ones. Natsumi just grinned and flashed him a peace, or victory sign, she wasn't sure of which one she was feeling at the moment. All the while Kikyo was trying to talk to Inuyasha, but it was quite obvious that he was ignoring her, minus a few grunts he would give so graciously. Natsumi couldn't help but laugh. She looked at her new partner and grimaced a little inside. They talked for a while and she found out that despite a few were moments when he was slightly annoying; he was still an okay guy. They finished up with math and it was safe to say that Inuyasha and Kikyo did not do much work during class because of him. He just sat there and pouted.<p>

After math class, Natsumi ran into Inuyasha before lunch and they were talking again. It was mainly Inuyasha whining and complaining about how unfair Ms. Kaede was and Natsumi just smiled and shook her head at him. They then parted and she went to her locker to get her packed lunch her mom slipped into her backpack and Inuyasha went to the cafeteria. It was a nice day so everyone was eating outside. Natsumi met up with Sango and Kagome on the lawn and shortly after Inuyasha joined them. Natsumi turned to Sango and thanked her for the heads up on Ms. Kaede's infamous semester project.  
>"But, I think she added a few pages since you took her last…" Natsumi pulled the packet from her folder and Sango almost choked on her iced tea.<br>"Oh dear!" She started flipping through the pages of the packet, "she really did add a lot of pages to this project! That sucks, sorry to hear that. Hey Inuyasha is in your class right? Are you guys partners?" There was a loud 'keh' from the teen and the three girl's attention turned towards him.  
>"No! I am stuck with Kikyo, I asked if we can switch partners but that old hag and this wench," he shoved his thumb in Natsumi's direction.<br>"Hey!"  
>"both said no! Can you believe that!"<br>"Umm.." Sango could only utter in between Inuyasha's rant.  
>"Not to mention, Natsumi totally rejected me and called me dumb in front of the whole class! Gee, what a friend…So now I am stuck with moody Kikyo and now I am going to actually have to do some of the work! I can't believe it." Inuyasha grumbled to himself as Kagome and Sango looked at Natsumi. The two had known Inuyasha and were used to his 'wench' comment, but by the look on her face, Natsumi was not fond of the word.<p>

Sango and Kagome turned to Natsumi and Kagome started to pat her shoulder.  
>"Just for that comment, forget the thought of us studying for that class anymore."<br>"Wha? No! Why would you say something like that? I didn't do anything!"  
>"Inuyasha sit and be nice! I thought you stopped calling people that, more specifically girls that! You are not a pirate or someone from our history books." Said Kagome. It was a thing that she and Inuyasha would get into arguments about all the time. It would always annoy her when he used that word. Inuyasha crossed his arms, huffed a big sigh and turned sideways while still grumbling and saying something about a stupid old hag.<br>Natsumi remembered Kikyo and remembered that she wanted to ask Kagome something, as well as Sango. "Hey Kagome, that Kikyo chick, is she a cousin of yours or something? She looks like as if she could be family of some sort." Kagome smiled gently.  
>"Yeah, we are actually distant relatives to each other. It is a <em>really<em> long story, but we also went to the same elementary school as well as middle school."  
>"Oh really? That's cool."<br>"Yeah, her, Sango, Inuyasha, Miroku, Koga, Ayame, Naraku and who else…hmm, well I can't remember the rest but there was a large group of us that seemed to stick together until high school or earlier. Koga, Naraku and Ayame both left about a year before we finished middle school. Miroku and Inuyasha both left after middle school, and the rest I am still a little fuzzy on the details as to when they left town."  
>"Woah, did you say Koga, Naraku and Ayame? Okay that is a little too 'it's a small world' for me…" Natsumi had a distant look on her face as she thought about something, Kagome and Sango just looked at each other then back at Natsumi.<br>"Why? Do you know them?" Asked Sango.  
>"Yeah, and I wish I didn't. Koga and I used to… uh well. We used to hang out a lot since he transferred to my middle school. Well, more correctly him, Ayame and Naraku." She glanced over at Inuyasha but it seemed as if he was busy wolfing down on his lunch so she continued. "Alright, I know I have not spoken much about my past school and why I had to transfer. But…here is like the spark notes of a spark notes to the full reason why. Okay I used to have a lot of friends, let's just name them Friend one through four. When I became friends with Friend One and Three I gained four new friends, two friends per one friend, Friend Two gave me three new friends, and Friend Four gave me one. So in case if you were counting I had about eight friends. Through the years we became pretty close. I was the closest to my original four friends. Then one day we got a transfer in one of my classes, Koga. He was a really cool guy, we started talking and we soon became good friends, so then I introduced him to the group. Everyone liked him, and then through Koga I met Ayame and Naraku. Ayame was pretty cool too, but it was really obvious that Koga was the only guy she liked, no matter who in the group or outside of the group approached her to ask her out. Naraku was just a really weird guy. I could never place my finger on what about he was weird. Just an overall creepy dude I guess. But I guess, every circle of friends have at least one person like that. Do you guys kinda follow?" Natsumi asked hoping they are not getting confused.<br>Sango and Kagome just nodded their heads and they eagerly were waiting so they could hear more, Natsumi looked at her phone and noticed that lunch was halfway over so she started again.  
>"Okay, so one month Koga and I, well we start to crush on each other, but because I knew of Ayame's feelings I never really let myself get too close to him, romantically that is. I mean by this point we were all pretty close, we would meet up on the weekends and play random sports; we would spend weeks at one another's houses even when school was in. Then one random weekend when we were all at an abandoned field, we had been there since the morning but that night, Koga pulls me aside and starts to confess. I was thinking about accepting but I remembered about Ayame again." Natsumi paused looking off into the distance when she remembered that night.<p>

**'**_**Hey Nat, I know this might seem a little bit sudden, but um I really like you. How about it? Would you like to be my girl? I will treat you right and everything.'  
>'I um, I kind of like you too, but…' She thought for a second, <strong>__'Even thought I know he is being sincere, why do I have the feeling that he has said something like this before…It is too well rehearsed.'__** Just then she heard Ayame laugh with a few other voices laughing too. Someone must have told a joke, or they probably started playing a game. 'Ayame…' Natsumi thought again then she turned back towards Koga giving him her attention again. 'I am really sorry Koga, even though I have started to like you, I cannot bring myself to start dating you. I mean, I have known that Ayame likes you, hell she liked you ever since I first met you guys, and if you still can't really see that, then well…I guess it's a good thing that I just told you.'  
>'I know, it's all about some dang promise I guess I made her when we were young, but I honestly still don't remember making any type of promise like that.'<br>'Then, if you liked her when you guys were young, why don't you start paying more attention to her?'  
>'I guess…even though right now I do not really want to, but since it is for you, I will go ahead and give it a shot.'<br>'Thanks…I guess, in a weird way' Natsumi smiled and they both gave each other a nice hug and then went back and joined the rest of their friends.**_

After a couple of minutes she continued, "I reminded him of Ayame and told him that I could never let myself do that to someone I know and someone that I am close to. Thankfully he understood but we were still friends after, nothing changed. No awkward ness no rudeness just pure friendship, it was nice. Then after that month everything changed. Apparently Naraku had overheard our exchange and he went and started rumors. He started saying that Koga and I were hooking up on the side, while he and Ayame were a new couple, he also spread rumors of things we have said about other individuals in the group, and all of his rumors were mainly about me." She looked to the side and sighed before continuing. "It got so bad that everyone that I had grown up with turned their backs on me and replaced me with him. They also influenced the whole school to think that I was some horrid person when I had done nothing. A-and that's everything." She ended abruptly when she noticed her stomach starting to twist into knots.

Kagome and Sango looked at her wide eyed. "Wow," Kagome said first. "I had no idea…" Sango finished.  
>"I remember Naraku pulling some stuff with Kikyo and Inuyasha when we were in middle school before, and that is why Kikyo still hates Inuyasha, even though it is not his fault. I thought he had stopped spreading rumors because Inuyasha and I along with Sango and Miroku and a few others that were affected by him confronted him and also went to the principle about him."<br>"Yeah, and he got into some pretty big trouble with teachers and other people in administration. As for punishment, he only got suspended for half a year, and he had to go to night school at an adult school in the next town.—"

They were interrupted by the ending lunch bell so they gathered up their belongings, Kagome and Sango were happy to know a little bit more about their friend and they were happy that it brought them a bit closer together. Inuyasha on the other hand kept on muttering about something but they paid no attention. Their remaining classes went by fairly quickly and Natsumi was really please about that. Track practice started out nicely until they realized that they were having a sub today and apparently the rest of the month, that they know of. Their sub was a really old and weird looking guy. His eyes were really big and round and he looked like a big bug. Then he told her and the other team managers that while he was there, they would have to run laps, the others whined and protested and bombarded him with questions but he just sat there and said "no butts."

"_Great, just what I have always wanted…to show off my horrible stamina in running to the whole track and field team." _Natsumi groaned. But since today was the first day, he ever so graciously let the managers walk the field because they didn't have a change of clothes._  
><em>After practice Natsumi listened to her ipod while she waited for the two teens. Inuyasha was out first and he took the offered ear bud and continued to listen to music with her. A few minutes later Matt appeared and the trio started to head home. They talked about various things, on the way towards their streets. The main topic was what that Mr. Myoga guy said to the team managers.  
>"Well that isn't bad." Matt offered, Natsumi just gave him a sideways look.<br>"Not bad for you, bad for me. I have horrible stamina. I hope I can just survive a month. I just might even start practicing in the morning."  
>Inuyasha snickered, "I would like to see that, you take forever to get ready in the morning, you would have to get up at midnight!"<br>"Hey! I take forever? What about you mister long hair, you take quite a while yourself." Natsumi crossed her arms, Matt snickered and Inuyasha just let out a 'whatever.'  
>"Well I am sure you will be fine no matter what you do. It isn't like as if your grade depends on it right?"<br>"Yeah, I hope not. Or else I would really be screwed." Matt laughed and they continued to walk to the where they go different ways. They said their goodbyes and Inuyasha and Natsumi went down their street while Matt kept walking a bit further.

Once she was in her bedroom and finished with her assignments, she went back downstairs to make herself some dinner. As she sat on the kitchen counter while she ate she started to think of the last time she had to run for P.E. She smiled at when the memory popped up.

**She was over at Phillip's and Jonathan's house, they were watching a movie because it was Friday night and they didn't really have anything else to do. When they paused the movie so Phillip could go to the bathroom, Jonathan and her started talking.  
>'It is so unfair!' She started when they were on the topic of her P.E. class. Jonathan just looked at her and waited for her to continue. 'You know that big race thing that is coming up that all of the neighboring schools are participating in? My P.E. class has to participate in it. My teacher divided my class into four groups, one group is doing the hurdles, another group is doing the high jump, one group is doing sprints and my group is doing distance running.' Natsumi pouted.<br>Jonathan just smiled at her and patted her shoulder. 'Hey, it's not that bad! You will see, running will invigorate you, and soon you would enjoy running.' Natsumi just grumbled at him.  
>'yeah, but I'm not you…' Jonathan smiled and shrugged his shoulders and started to laugh.<br>'your right there.' Natsumi rolled her eyes and he sighed. 'Well, something that helps with your muscles is running in the morning. So it stretches out everything and it gets you warmed up and what not.'  
>'mmm…thanks…I will think about it.' Jonathan just smiled and nodded. Phillip came back into the room and they finished the movie. They decided to watch another movie because it was still early in the evening. Natsumi knew that her mother wasn't even home and her father was still out of leave. He wouldn't be back for another five months. She was enjoying the company of the two brothers so she decided to stay with them and watch another movie, except this time during this movie, she was starting to doze off. All of a sudden she started to get really tired. Apparently she wasn't the only one who dozed off on the couch during the second movie. All three of them did. At first Natsumi felt a stirring by her legs then there was emptiness. To her, what felt like half an hour, but in reality was only a few minutes until the other side of her started to stir. She slowly opened an eye and noticed that she had fallen asleep on Phillip and now he was starting to wake up. She rubbed her cheeks as he rubbed the back of his head. He stood up and stretched to wake himself up. After looking at his phone, he noticed how late it was and using nothing but gestures, he helped Natsumi up.<br>'C'mon, Ill walk you home.' Natsumi just sleepily nodded her head; she grabbed the bottom of his shirt when she started walking so she wouldn't stumble. He helped her put her jacket on and he picked up her backpack from the floor.  
>'thank you.' She said quietly, all he did was nod. On the walk back to her house she managed to wake up more. She looked up at him embarrassed. 'Sorry you had to walk me. I can manage the rest of the way home from here.' She said as she stopped walking for a minute. Phillip just smiled gently and shook his head.<br>'its no problem. Plus its already 1:30 in the morning. You shouldn't really be walking by yourself.'  
>'huh?! Its 1:30?!' He nodded to her question. 'geez!'<br>'its okay.' He chuckled. 'you mother isn't home yet is she?' She shook her head and she looked down the street as they walked.  
>'no…She sent me a text during the first movie we were watching that she is having to do a double because the nurse who is supposed to relieve her is out with food poisoning.'<br>'and your dad…' he looked up at the night sky and thought for a second. 'five more months right?' Natsumi nodded.**

**They reached her house within minutes and they sat and talked for a little before they parted. Throughout the night, she couldn't really sleep and she woke up extra early. She got up and changed into sweats and headed out to try jogging. She really wanted to see how bad her stamina really was. She ran a good distance for her and ended up at a park in her neighborhood. She really needed to stop and take a break. She sat down in the cool grass and laid back while taking deep breaths to get her breathing under control. She started to think that she over did herself because now she was feeling really tired. She ended up dozing off in the cool grass and didn't wake until she felt someone nudge her. She opened up her eyes and it took her a while to register who it was but once she realized that it was Phillip she smiled.  
>'Hey. What are you doing here?'<br>'Running…well, I was until I saw you dead in the grass.'  
>'Hey, I'm not dead yet.' Phillip just smirked and held out his hands to help her up.<br>'C'mon, your gonna catch a cold if you stay laying on the cold ground.' They walked over to the park bench after going to the water fountain.  
>'Sorry, I didn't mean to make you cut your run short.' Phillip just shook his head and leaned back and stretched his arms out along the top.<br>'No worries, I don't really need to train that much. I naturally have a high amount of endurance unlike my brother. And to be honest, I didn't really want to run this morning, so I just went out for a light jog.' Natsumi nodded. They then decided to head back home, at first they walked but then Natsumi insisted on jogging. **

**Once she got back home she took a shower and put her pajamas back on and fell into her bed. She was fully exhausted now. She soon fell asleep with her window open. That weekend, she also caught a cold. Once a week she would go out and run, just to help with her P.E. class. When the school event came, she actually took fourth place. She was so proud of herself, the first two people she told was Jonathan and Phillip. All three of them went out for ice cream to celebrate that night.**

Natsumi's smile faded when she realized that something like that may never happen again with her old friends. She went back upstairs to surf the internet before bed. Just before she turned off her computer she got an im message from someone. Hesitantly she opened it up. It took her a second to recognize the username but when she realized who it was, she was shocked. "Jonathan…" She said out loud. She read the one worded message and felt a knot in her throat. She wasn't sure if she wanted to respond or not. What if it was a joke, or he was being put up to something, or what if all of her old friends were gathered around behind him looking at the screen. She didn't want to respond. But then she started to think of the outcome that may happen if she didn't respond.  
><em>DuhDino: …hey…<br>_She sent the message and waited. Should she say something else?  
><em>Jaythang: How are you?<em>  
>He replied. She grimaced at his lame username, she remembered she constantly used to tease him about it.<br>_DuhDino: I'm uh, good. How about you?  
>Jaythang: That's good. I'm great! Thanks for asking.<br>DuhDino: Well, that's good…  
><em>There was no response for a while and it started to make Natsumi feel even more uncomfortable. _  
>DuhDino:…<br>DuhDino: I hate to sound rude, but why are you contacting me all of a sudden?  
>Jaythang: Oh, well…uh, I guess I am not really sure myself…<br>Jaythang: Hey, can I ask you something?  
>DuhDino: Of course, when have I never been an open book to you guys?<br>Jaythang: yeah…true…  
>Jaythang: Mmm okay, well how are you doing?<br>DuhDino: ? Jonathan? Didn't we already go over this?  
>Jaythang: Yeah, I know we already went over the polite greetings, but I really wanted to know, how are YOU?<br>Jaythang: And, well also how is your kid?  
><em>Natsumi wasn't sure where he was going with this. She then started to doubt the conversation that she just had with him. She was about to just log off and shut off her computer, she knew she was being messed with. She didn't have any kids, well, she had her puppy…But that was it._  
>DuhDino: KID!? Are you asking me if I had a KID?! Like a child?!<br>Jaythang: …  
>DuhDino: I only have a small dog right now, and she is the only thing that has replaced all of you guys. Let me guess, that was one of the other rumors that was going on? And now, after just about two years later, you finally ask me how I am doing? How I am coping with losing all of my past childhood friends, all of my best friends, and just friends in general. How I feel after learning so many lies and rumors were spread about me.<br>DuhDino: So many things that were just not true! I get accused for hooking up with someone when I didn't want to double cross a friend and date a small crush I had for a few months because she had liked him longer than I. Not to mention they had history. Yet, I do such a good thing, and this is the kind of SHIT I have to put up with?!  
>DuhDino: School got so unbearable for me to keep going. Constantly opening my locker to find trash in it and rotting food, constantly finding my gym clothes wet and on the school grass field. My lockers grafitied, my school books constantly getting trashed, vasaline on my desks and seats, ruining some of my clothes. It got so bad that some people started to pick fights with me. Not teenage fights, but physical fights!<br>DuhDino: Well, once I am able to forget and forgive all of those things that had happened to me and that was done to me, give me half a year and then ask me the same question. Because no one believed me in the end, here is proof that I only have a dog where I live now, and she is the only thing that actually cares about me and who I can fully trust.  
><em>Natsumi sent an image of her and Chunky._  
>DuhDino: And I swear, if any of you guys find out where I am currently living and do anything to me, or more importantly to my dog, you will be dealing with me. And this time, I will NOT be holding back anything! You try to do anything to my home; you are going to answer to my father. I know you guys remember who he is.<em>

Natsumi felt herself foaming at the mouth. She couldn't control her anger that she was feeling. Quickly, that anger turned into sadness and hurt. She almost started to cry. Tears threatening to spill, she just closed her laptop shut and curled up on her bed and cried her heart out. She had not cried about it for a long time, but tonight was the night where the damn broke. Chunky was then right beside her pawing at her arms and head trying to get her mothers attention. Natsumi just ignored her and reached out and held Chunky closer to her body as the tears kept pouring out._  
><em> 

_Authors Note: Well, I do not think I am very fond of this chapter. It's kind of just like blah to me. I did however attempt my first flashback :3 How did I do? Really bad right?  
>Anyways, read and review please.<br>Also I just watched The Hunger Game movie, A-MAZE-ING :3  
><em> 

_(Happy (late) Easter to my readers that celebrate.)_

_-Foxfaceish_

_**UNEDITED-  
>Final Edit January 10, 2013<br>Wow, so this turned into an emotional chapter near the end…lol even I didn't see that coming, but it just flowed right in there.  
>Anyways, I have more written, I just need to edit everything first, then I can get back to posting new chapters!<strong>_

_**Thanks for reading! (again)**_


	8. New Chapter 8

**For some reason, when I edited the chapters (making the football to track and field change) it did not save or update the chapters with the new content. So here I am going back (with a new laptop that has none of the past chapters on it) and re-editing things. So if any of you were wondering why I might not have updated this story, well…this is your answer. Oh, and I am also going to place this little note in the beginning of each of my chapters. That way it will make things easier on you as the reader, and me as the author. happy reading!**_  
><em>Recap:  
><em>Natsumi's smile faded when she realized that something like that may never happen again with her old friends. She went back upstairs to surf the internet before bed. Just before she turned off her computer she got an im message from someone. Hesitantly she opened it up. It took her a second to recognize the username but when she realized who it was, she was shocked. "Jonathan…" She said out loud. She read the one worded message and felt a knot in her throat. She wasn't sure if she wanted to respond or not. What if it was a joke, or he was being put up to something, or what if all of her old friends were gathered around behind him looking at the screen. She didn't want to respond. But then she started to think of the outcome that may happen if she didn't respond.<br>DuhDino: …hey…  
>She sent the message and waited. Should she say something else?<br>Jaythang: How are you?  
>He replied. She grimaced at his lame username, she remembered she constantly used to tease him about it.<br>DuhDino: I'm uh, good. How about you?  
>Jaythang: That's good. I'm great! Thanks for asking.<br>DuhDino: Well, that's good…  
>There was no response for a while and it started to make Natsumi feel even more uncomfortable.<br>DuhDino:…  
>DuhDino: I hate to sound rude, but why are you contacting me all of a sudden?<br>Jaythang: Oh, well…uh, I guess I am not really sure myself…  
>Jaythang: Hey, can I ask you something?<br>DuhDino: Of course, when have I never been an open book to you guys?  
>Jaythang: yeah…true…<br>Jaythang: Mmm okay, well how are you doing?  
>DuhDino: ? Jonathan? Didn't we already go over this?<br>Jaythang: Yeah, I know we already went over the polite greetings, but I really wanted to know, how are YOU?  
>Jaythang: And, well also how is your kid?<br>Natsumi wasn't sure where he was going with this. She then started to doubt the conversation that she just had with him. She was about to just log off and shut off her computer, she knew she was being messed with. She didn't have any kids, well, she had her puppy…But that was it.  
>DuhDino: KID!? Are you asking me if I had a KID?! Like a child?!<br>Jaythang: …  
>DuhDino: I only have a small dog right now, and she is the only thing that has replaced all of you guys. Let me guess, that was one of the other rumors that was going on? And now, after just about two years later, you finally ask me how I am doing? How I am coping with losing all of my past childhood friends, all of my best friends, and just friends in general. How I feel after learning so many lies and rumors were spread about me.<br>DuhDino: So many things that were just not true! I get accused for hooking up with someone when I didn't want to double cross a friend and date a small crush I had for a few months because she had liked him longer than I. Not to mention they had history. Yet, I do such a good thing, and this is the kind of SHIT I have to put up with?!  
>DuhDino: School got so unbearable for me to keep going. Constantly opening my locker to find trash in it and rotting food, constantly finding my gym clothes wet and on the school grass field. My lockers grafitied, my school books constantly getting trashed, vasaline on my desks and seats, ruining some of my clothes. It got so bad that some people started to pick fights with me. Not teenage fights, but physical fights!<br>DuhDino: Well, once I am able to forget and forgive all of those things that had happened to me and that was done to me, give me half a year and then ask me the same question. Because no one believed me in the end, here is proof that I only have a dog where I live now, and she is the only thing that actually cares about me and who I can fully trust.  
>Natsumi sent an image of her and Chunky.<br>DuhDino: And I swear, if any of you guys find out where I am currently living and do anything to me, or more importantly to my dog, you will be dealing with me. And this time, I will NOT be holding back anything! You try to do anything to my home; you are going to answer to my father. I know you guys remember who he is._

_Natsumi felt herself foaming at the mouth. She couldn't control her anger that she was feeling. Quickly, that anger turned into sadness and hurt. She almost started to cry. Tears threatening to spill, she just closed her laptop shut and curled up on her bed and cried her heart out. She had not cried about it for a long time, but tonight was the night where the dam broke. Chunky was then right beside her; pawing at her arms and head trying to get her mother's attention. Natsumi just ignored her and reached out and held Chunky closer to her body as the tears kept pouring out. Enlightenment _

_**A New Start**_  
>Chapter 8: Old Wounds, New Bandages<p>

Natsumi woke the next morning with her eyes really puffy from crying so hard last night. She sat up and rubbed her cheeks a little, she looked out her window and noticed that it was still dark out. Her small dog grumpily buried herself beneath the blankets and pillows on the bed. Natsumi felt an urge to go running this morning. She had a feeling that it would be good for her, it would help wake her up, clear her head and forget about last night. After patting her dogs head, she started to dress herself in her running attire before heading out the front door with her ipod in hand. There on her porch, she hesitated to do a few stretches to warm up her legs and limber up her body before she started. After she finished she headed towards the sidewalk while looking at her ipod, she chose a new playlist that she had made recently and started down the street with a slow jog.

With no destination in mind, only a goal, she just ran. She knew she wanted to run at least half a mile, but because she decided to go running on such short notice, she didn't have a rout planned out yet. _'I should have tracked a route so I would actually know how much, or how far I have to go for half a mile…'_ She started to think to herself. _'I will probably do that tonight if I don't have too much homework to do or something…'_ She continued, her thoughts coming out within rhythm of her jogging. _'I could probably just do two or three blocks in this neighborhood, they are a pretty good size.'_ After a few minutes of slow jogging, she was able to see how out of shape she really was. Her lungs started to burn within her with every breath she took along with her legs and thighs starting to burn. She looked around and saw that she had just finished running down her block and was halfway down another. _'Wow, I really am out of shape…how long has it been?' _ She started to think to herself again, _'has it really been almost two years since I last ran some sort of distance?'_ She wondered. As she kept running, she started to focus more on her music and where she was going so she would stop thinking of stop running. After a few minutes, she noticed that she was on Matt's street. She remembered the name of it when they were first talking about living near each other. Natsumi glanced at almost every house as she ran down his street. Next thing she knew, she was back on her street. As she saw her house peeking around the side of Inuyasha's, her pace quickened. Her legs and lungs were really burning now. The second her foot landed on the front lawn, her legs gave out. She felt the cool damp grass hit her knees and in her hands. She closed her eyes to try to concentrate on getting her breathing back under control. She flopped over into the grass; she could feel the wetness coming through her shirt. She just laid there for a few minutes while she got her breathing back under control.

"Ugh…." She moaned when she finally decided to get back up. Her tingling legs carried her back into her house. Before heading up stairs, she started the coffee maker after reading a note by her mother. She had ended up having to go in during the middle of the night so she wouldn't be home till the afternoon. After satisfied with the now brewing coffee, Natsumi went to her room and decided to send a text to Inuyasha.  
>"Eggs and bacon okay?" After hitting send, she went straight to the shower to start washing up. When she walked back to her room she saw that she already had a reply back from him.<br>"Ya, b over in 5."  
>"Geez, why so fast? Does he like eggs and bacon that much?" She muttered to herself as she shrugged. She felt like sending another text, but decided not to, instead she started to get dressed and ready for school before she started cooking. She tossed her phone on the bed and Chunky rolled over with a snore. Natsumi started working on her make up while she tried to decide what she wanted to wear today. After she was done, she had just finished putting on a pair of shorts when there was a sudden knock at her bedroom door. The knock was so sudden and loud that it startled her and her dog. Chunky immediately let out a startled and overly sleepy bark at the sound.<br>"Oi, Natsumi!"  
>"W-what?!" She blurted out, slightly frozen from being startled. She looked down and hesitated, her shirt was still laying on her bed.<br>"I'm comin in!" He called out.  
>"W-wait…Count to five!" She yelled as she quickly grabbed her shirt, and turned around so her back was facing the door. She fumbled with the shirt a little, trying to find the right holes to put her head and arms through.<br>"Five!" Inuyasha instantly yelled as he opened the door. He only gave her enough time to put her shirt over her head, giving him a good look at her bare back. Chunky managed to let out another sleepy bark when the door was opened suddenly. Natsumi fought turning around to see who it was as she tried to pull her shirt down in time, and hoping he didn't see her front in the mirror she forgot she was facing until he was in the room. After she got the shirt down she then allowed herself to turn around, her cheeks slightly pink from embarrassment.  
>"Can I help you?" She asked trying to ignore what just happened.<br>"You said you were going to have eggs and bacon…"  
>"Uhh, technically I just asked if they were okay." Natsumi stuck out her tongue and Inuyasha pouted. Natsumi just rolled her eyes at his reaction. "Geez, relax, it doesn't take very long to make…c'mon." She grabbed his hand and lead him back down the stairs to the kitchen. "Also, I never said that you were not going to get them." Once down stairs, she started to make breakfast for him and toast for herself. While she was cooking he helped himself to some coffee. "Hey pour me a cup too please." Inuyasha nodded at her request and complied with a cup of coffee for her. After he finished pouring, he went to the refrigerator and pulled out the cream and started looking for the sugar. "The sugar is on the other side of me, on the counter." She helped out.<br>"Ah, okay." He took a step and reached around her and grabbed the container. After finishing making his cup, he was about to start making hers but hesitated to ask first. She smiled and shook her head.  
>"No thanks, I am usually not a big fan of cream in my coffee." Inuyasha nodded as he moved on to the sugar.<br>"How about some sugar?" He asked, she turned and looked as she watched him put a huge spoonful of sugar in his coffee.  
>"mmm just one spoonful is good. Thanks." She said as she went back to finish up the breakfast.<br>"only one?" He asked.  
>She laughed, "yeah, your one is probably equal to my two." Inuyasha smirked at her comment "and shrugged his shoulders.<br>"I don't know how you can stand that. I hate bitter things."  
>Natsumi just smiled at him, "yeah, I can tell." At that point, she had finished cooking and handed him a plate of eggs and bacon while she sipped her coffee. He hopped up onto the counter and started eating. He watched her for a second while she sipped her coffee as she started to put the dishes in the sink.<br>"Yawr naw gunna hav shum?" He asked her with a raised eyebrow. Natsumi shook her head and as she did, the toaster popped up with a slice of toast. She pointed over her shoulder in the toaster's direction. "Only toast?" He asked as he watched her start to fix her toast how she liked it. "Didn't you go running this morning?" He asked causing her eyes to widen.  
>"How did you know?" She asked, he just grinned at her.<br>"I woke up really early today for some reason so I was just watching TV when I saw you leave your house." Natsumi blushed.  
>"Uh… well yeah…"<br>"anyways, you should have something a bit more substantial don't you think?"  
>"I… guess." She took a step closer to the same counter that he was sitting on and grabbed an extra fork that was on the counter. She stabbed a chunk of egg that was on his plate and popped it in her mouth.<br>"Hey! Make your own! These are mine!" He held his plate up a little higher trying to get the plate out of her reach as she pretended to get another bite of egg. His reaction causing her to laugh.  
>"I did, that one single clump of egg was for me, and dang, I make really good scramble eggs." She joked as she took a bite of her toast. Her mind starting to wander to when she was able to enjoy spending time like this with her old friends.<br>"Yeah…" He took a few more bites, "these are…the eggs, they are really good, and the bacon too."  
>Natsumi blushed slightly after the compliment. She was glad she had her back to him. Compliments on her cooking, no matter what mood she was in, always made her feel really happy and giddy inside. It was always a quick and easy way to boost her self-esteem. After they both finished the rest of their breakfast they put the dishes in the sink and headed back upstairs to her room. Natsumi needed to put on her socks and shoes. He sat down at her desk as she sat on her bed, finishing up with her shoes and then putting lotion on her legs. After she was done Natsumi just sat on her bed and pouted, "Why do we have to go to school today?" She flopped backwards on her bed and pulled the still sleeping dog closer to her. Inuyasha laughed as he walked over to her. He leaned over and grabbed her free arm and started to pull her back up.<br>"C'mon, we gotta get goin"  
>"mmmm no. I'm tired."<br>"Then you shouldn't have gone for a run this morning."  
>"But, I needed to work on my stamina…"<br>"Work on it at school, no need to over exert yourself."  
>Natsumi was trying her hardest to make herself dead weight the whole time Inuyasha was trying to pull her up. "Never!" She laughed as she yanked her arm out of his grasp. The action making him lose his balance, he started to go down, but his reaction saved him but only to some extent, he had managed to brace himself with an arm to the side of her neck and his other hand was on her side. When Natsumi looked up, she saw how close their faces were to each other. It didn't help that she was propping herself up on her elbows. Not sure what to really do, and from the slight shock of embarrassment, the two of them stared at each other with pink cheeks.<p>

This time, Inuyasha wasn't able to turn it into a joke to get Natsumi flustered. All he could do was become embarrassed himself.

Authors Note:

meeeeeeeh lol so this is where I am calling a stopping point. Doing this on my phone is hard! :p lol but I am just happy that I was able to get an update out of this fiasco!

anyways I hope you enjoyed it (when in reality its a pretty short chapter)

-FoxFaceish

**Wooo.. okay so I am finally back after a long hiatus, which I do apologize for. Really, I am sorry about that. Okay… so… I am working on editing my chapters so hopefully my new chapters that I am going to post will make sense, and everything will flow a lot better. Yay for getting back on the horse! Okay… on to chapter 9 :3**

**Thanks for reading. And please review to let me know what you think, or if there should be any changes. PLEASE TELL ME if you think there should be any.**


	9. New Chapter 9

**For some reason, when I edited the chapters (making the football to track and field change) it did not save or update the chapters with the new content. So here I am going back (with a new laptop that has none of the past chapters on it) and re-editing things. So if any of you were wondering why I might not have updated this story, well…this is your answer. Oh, and I am also going to place this little note in the beginning of each of my chapters. That way it will make things easier on you as the reader, and me as the author. happy reading!**_  
><em> 

**Recap:  
><strong>_"But, I needed to work on my stamina…"  
>"Work on it at school, no need to over exert yourself."<br>Natsumi was trying her hardest to make herself dead weight the whole time Inuyasha was trying to pull her up. "Never!" She laughed as she yanked her arm out of his grasp. The action making him lose his balance, he started to go down, but his reaction saved him but only to some extent, he had managed to brace himself with an arm to the side of her neck and his other hand was on her side. When Natsumi looked up, she saw how close their faces were to each other. It didn't help that she was propping herself up on her elbows. Not sure what to really do, and from the slight shock of embarrassment, the two of them stared at each other with pink cheeks._

_This time, Inuyasha wasn't able to turn it into a joke to get Natsumi flustered. All he could do was become embarrassed himself._

**Chapter 9  
>Old Wounds, New Bandages (part 2)<strong>

After a long day, the three teenagers walked home together. They were all really tired, so their walk home was mainly in silence. While they walked, Natsumi's tired mind would wonder to earlier points in the day. Her cheeks would always become a bit pink when she would think of what happened that morning. Not to mention, every time Natsumi was around Inuyasha, or found him looking at her, she would start to blush again. Needless to say, the trio was walking with Matt in the middle.  
>Natsumi let out a sigh and stretched her arms over her head. "Ugh, I am so exhausted today…but I have so much studying to do, and then there is also that stupid math project to do…"<br>Matt chuckled, "sound like you have Ms. Kaede for Math." Natsumi nodded. They continued to talk amongst each other before splitting separate ways. Natsumi and Inuyasha walked for a while in silence until Inuyasha cleared his throat.  
>"You wanna work on the math project together tonight?"<br>"Oh, sure…" She glanced up at him for a second and thought, _'What the heck, why is he all of a sudden making so nervous?'_ Her thoughts drifted and she remembered her mother is home. "Oh, let me just let my mom know that I will be home late." He nodded and waited for her outside of her house. A few minutes later, Natsumi came back out of her house while wearing her slippers. Inuyasha raised an eyebrow and chuckled.  
>"Nice shoes…"<br>She laughed, "what? You jealous?" He shook his head and rolled his eyes.  
>"No way." Inuyasha grabbed drinks for them and they both headed up to his room where they would start to work on their projects. He sat on his bed, leaning up against the wall while Natsumi sat on the ground with her back against his bed. She was in the middle of a problem when her mind started to go back to this morning.<p>

_Natsumi looked up at Inuyasha, their faces close to one another. They continued to just look at each other for a few seconds until Natsumi opened her mouth to try to say something. Instead of an actual word or sentence coming out, a random noise voiced itself. This caused herself to blush even more. Then all of a sudden, Inuyasha looked at her with wide eyes and looked her up and down. "Oh…wow…" Natsumi hesitated on asking him what, but Inuyasha continued after taking in a deep breath. "You…smell…SO good." This caused Natsumi to let out another inaudible sound. Inuyasha just leaned forward and inhaled again.  
>"D-don't smell me!" She managed to say as she tried pushing one of his shoulders to try to get him to stop, but it just resulted in him flopping down next to her on the bed, while catching her arm to keep her still. He buried his nose in the nape of her neck and inhaled again. Natsumi let out a startled noise for the third time and her face turned a new shade of pink.<br>"Why do you smell so good?!" He asked her, "I can't stop myself." He proved his point by inhaling again. Natsumi was finally able to wiggle away from him but only to have him still hold onto her arm. Now standing with him on the bed, her cheeks quite noticeably red, she glares at him for a second before looking away towards the door.  
>"Why do you always do those things to me?!" Inuyasha sat for a second and shrugged. Then he let out a sigh along with a small smirk.<br>"I couldn't help it, you smelled so good that I felt like I had to keep smelling you. You know? It's that weird feeling ya know?" Natsumi couldn't help but let out a small laugh at his question.  
>"That makes you sound like some type of dog, one who keeps smelling even though they know what it is, yet it smells good to them for some reason." By this point, Inuyasha had released her captive arm and started laughing along with her. He shrugged his shoulders, "Well, it won't be the first time I was referred to as a dog." Natsumi just rolled her eyes and laughed.<br>"Somehow, I fail to see it as a good thing."_

Inuyasha sifting through a few papers snapped Natsumi back to what she was originally doing. She continued to work on the problem, then, she started moving onto different questions and problems. It didn't take her long before her thoughts were drifting off to earlier today during lunch.

_The three girls were all eating together, Natsumi had finished first because she only brought a light lunch. So she sat playing with a straw wrapper to try to keep herself awake. She wondered what provoked her for bringing only a light lunch today, because as of right now, she was still pretty hungry. She decided that she was going to take a small nap while the other two finished eating. She managed to doze off while listening to the other two girls talk amongst themselves, only to be awoken suddenly by having a cold drink be placed on her arm. She sat straight up and sleepily glared at the culprit to only find it to be Inuyasha.  
>"That was mean." She said as she rubbed her arm trying to warm up the area from the cold drink. He just smirked and shrugged his shoulders at her.<br>"Well you weren't waking up any of the other ways." Natsumi just looked at him and noticed that he was sitting next to her on the bench and was working on his food. She must have really been tired to not notice someone come up to them and sit down next to her. Natsumi then rested her chin in the palm of her hand as she started to the conversation that was already going on. Inuyasha had then moved the drink he pressed against her arm in front of Natsumi.  
>"Here, have it, it will help wake you up."<br>"Oh, thanks…" She took the drink and took a sip. Inuyasha looked at her for a second then continued to talk.  
>"Hey, where is your lunch?"<br>"Oh, I already finished it." Inuyasha just rolled his eyes at her.  
>"How many more times do I need to tell you that you have to eat more to help you get through the day. Especially now that you are having to do a lot more running?"<br>Natsumi gave him a guilty smile and shrugged her shoulders. "Well I feel fine, so I must be good."  
>Inuyasha scoffed at her, "Liar." He then gave her some of his food that was extra. "I bet your starving."<br>Natsumi just sat and started to pick at the food he gave her as she started to think. 'Why … or how does he know all of this about me all of a sudden?' _ "Oi…" '_Why would he even care?' "_I said… Oi… Natsumi!" Inuyasha called out to her. Natsumi was so preoccupied with her own thoughts that she didn't notice that he was trying to get her attention until he poked her shoulder.  
>"W-what?!..." She looked up at him with slight embarrassment after being caught day dreaming.<br>"Wow, you were seriously gone for a while there…But uh, how long are you just going to sit there? You haven't done a single problem since we started."  
>"What?! N-no…I have done a few…" She looked down at her paper and in a way he was right, she didn't really do much of anything, and the ones she did, were visibly incorrect. She looked back up at him and noticed that he had moved, now he was sitting on the edge of the bed leaning over her. "Okay… no more spacing out… I need to focus now." Natsumi stood up to stretch out her legs and back. She then sat up on the foot of his bed so she was a little bit more comfortable and started to erase the incorrect parts of the problems she did. Inuyasha just watched her for a second and grinned.<br>"Yeah, you should probably stop thinking about me like that." Natsumi just rolled her eyes at him and continued to work on her assignment.

A few weeks past and Inuyasha and Natsumi's study sessions became so frequent. Sometimes they would end up falling asleep at one another's house without anticipating it. Tonight they were back at his house, both of them were sitting on the ground leaning up against his bed. _"It has been a few weeks already. Dang, and the school year is still fresh and it seems as if I have gotten so much closer to Inuyasha than Kagome and Sango in one fourth the time. Ugh, well duh Natsumi…were neighbors. So it helps, but I wonder…"_ She thought to herself as she looked over at Inuyasha who was studying next to her. After a few seconds he notices that she was looking at him and looks up at her. He gives her his smug grin "Daydreaming about me again?"  
>"Pfft not in the way you're thinking."<br>"Oh, so you were?" Inuyasha scoots closer to her and was about to continue but she cut him off.  
>"Yeah, what is it about you…I mean, you got me to trust you so quickly. It kinda pisses me off. Also sometimes it is like you are in my brain. Like that one morning where I decided to run, somehow you anticipated that I was still hungry after eating my lunch." She hesitated for a second, "Which I was…and I don't think I ever actually thanked you." Inuyasha stared at her, slightly unaware of how to respond. Her gaze was so determined and slightly annoyed, while with her last sentence it became so thoughtful and peaceful, while a hint of embarrassment? For a second he thought about Kagome. Her and Natsumi both share a lot of the characteristics that he likes. Just with Kagome, there was just something about her that didn't quite sit right with his personality. Was it that she was too optimistic? He continued to let his thoughts wander while a shift in positions from Natsumi brought him back to her question. He looked away from her and placed an elbow on a propped up knee and rested his chin in his hand. She was now sitting at an angle, but across from him.<br>"I don't know, probably cause I am just observant." He smirked to himself as he tried to sneak a glance over at her, but it went noticed.  
>Natsumi crossed her arms together and rolled her eyes. "Pfft, yeah right, you are probably as observant as a blind and deaf person in a movie theater."<br>Inuyasha looked at her for a second then chuckled, "That didn't make any sense…"  
>"Shut up…. Okay, you also have a tendency to be super dense." She leaned over and playfully knocked on his head. "Sometimes I even wonder if there is anything up here." Inuyasha gently took ahold of her arm to stop her from knocking on his head, he scooted closer to him and she tried to lean back away from him. She could tell that he was thinking of something to say, and she wasn't sure if it was going to be a good thing or a bad thing.<br>"It's because…I pay attention…to you."  
>"Well duh, I gathered that…hence my question that started this whole conversation, which you have yet to answer…Why?" Inuyasha raised an eyebrow as she continued. He was getting slightly annoyed that there was a possibility that he would have to explain further. He let go of her arm and she laid back on the floor looking up at the ceiling while using her backpack as a pillow, with her book in her lap. She looked over at him and continued. "Out of everyone that we hang out with, why me? Is it because were neighbors, do you have this feeling that since we are, that you need to protect me or something? You better not! I would be pissed!" She propped herself back up onto her elbows.<br>He leaned forward a little more as he let out a sigh and mumbled. "And people say I am the dense and nonobservant one."  
>Natsumi not really able to hear exactly what he said just looked at him. "Huh?"<br>Inuyasha shook his head and sighed. This time when he rested his chin in his hand he looked at Natsumi in the eye. Her expression was full of confusion and curiosity. There was also something about her that just made him want to constantly be near her. Not just because he loved the way she smells, which he found out a few weeks ago. The energy she put off, her determination, sadly everything that he enjoyed about Kagome, but with added surprises. He was feeling so many things, and yet, it still annoyed him to no end that he was able to fall for someone so quickly. She had said things that made sense, Kagome and Sango have even said things to him that were similar to what Natsumi was saying. She had things about her that Kagome didn't, and he enjoyed every second of it. He noticed a slight blush creep upon her cheeks as he kept looking her over. He could tell that she was about to say something but he cut her off with a nonchalant sigh and got up. "You're crazy, I didn't say anything." He started to head out of his room. He was starting to get annoyed by some of his thoughts and he just wanted the conversation to end. He walked behind her and opened up the door and mumbled, "I just guess things are just obvious, you should just be able to tell when someone is starting to like you." With that Natsumi perked up, she was annoyed at him because he told her he didn't say anything when he did. And the fact that he continued to mumble things that she couldn't even hear was just annoying her even more. She quickly got up and ran out of his bedroom door that he had just shut.  
>"Hey!" She didn't need to go far because she ran into him on the other side. "ow…" She rubbed her nose while he turned around.<br>"What?" He looked down at her with arms crossed. He looked like he was annoyed.  
>"Why won't you answer my questions?" She pouted while shoving her hands into her shorts pockets.<br>"Why do you keep bothering me about that stuff? It's none of your business…" He crossed his arms and looked down at her.  
>"W-what?! Yes it is! It is my business because it involves me!" She shifted her weight and<br>leaned up against the wall besides his bedroom door while crossing her arms across her chest.  
>"Ugh!" Inuyasha looked at her for a few minutes then rolled his eyes. "I said that things are obvious and that you being a girl and all should already know those things, and be able to figure stuff out."<br>Natsumi looked at him for a while with an eyebrow raised, "obvious?" She stepped forward, "what do you mean? Nothing you do or say is obvious."  
>"Tsk" Inuyasha was really annoyed at this point, he was already about to flip his lid.<br>"Nothing you do or say is obvious, there is always some sort of meaning or message beneath what you are saying, or what your actions are saying."  
>"Whatever."<br>"The only time you are obvious, let alone blunt is when you are sharing a dislike in something."  
>"Stop…"<br>"When it is something good, you rarely just come out and say it! I am sure Kagome and Sango had already told you this, so I have no idea why I am even bringing it up."  
>"Exactly! So why are you? Why don't you stop." They didn't realize but the whole time they were arguing they were also getting closer and closer together.<br>"Stop?! I don't have to listen to you! Ugh! That is another thing you do. You constantly try to tell people what to do!" "What—" Inuyasha cut her off, his own frustration and emotions gaining control over him. He was grinding his teeth the whole time but now, trying hard not to act out, his control was barley existent.  
>"Well?! What is it? What is so obvious that I should just understand?!" With that, Inuyasha pushed Natsumi's shoulder against the wall with one hand, and his other propping him up against the wall. His lips aggressively crashed down upon hers in one swift movement. There was an instant tingle, or a spark between the two. Inuyasha's hand came off of her shoulder slightly and crept up along her neck and held her gently while his thumb gently rubbed the side of her cheek. His other hand slid down the wall to her side. He gently pulled her closer so he could deepen the kiss. At first, she was frozen in place from shock; her instant ridged-ness seemed to melt away from her body. Her eyes slowly closed while a blush crept upon her cheeks. While her mind was still functioning it was telling her to get away and try to get out of his grasp because not too long ago they were arguing, but now that she had no thoughts going through her mind, all she could do was let her body react. Timidly she felt herself start to kiss him back, her doing so snapped Inuyasha back to what was going on and pulled away from her. He looked at her with a blush staining his cheeks. For a few more seconds he still could not release her from his grasps, but he managed to snap back completely and he turned around and went down the hallway towards his bathroom leaving a dazed Natsumi in front of his room. He cleared his throat and mumbled "I'll be right back."<p>

Natsumi barley nodded and turned around to go back into his room. She sat back down and tried to calm herself down. Her mind was whirling around, she understood what just happened, but she was still not able to comprehend it. She felt like she needed to leave. So she quickly picked up her things and left, her mind was just not able to handle what was going on. As she got up to leave, Inuyasha was back in the door way. He saw her with her things and embarrassed she looked away.  
>"I'm… I'm sorry… I need... I have to go, I forgot my mother asked me to do something." She blurted out as she walked by him. She was unable to make eye contact with him as she passed by, but she could tell that his eyes were on her.<p>

When she got back home, she just sat on her bed. Her mind still not able to focus on just one thing. She stayed like that for about an hour or so, until she moved to her window seat. She didn't turn on her bedroom light when she got home, so she knew she couldn't be seen. She sat there, looking at Inuyasha's window with Chunky on her lap, and her head resting at the window sill. Natsumi sat there with a hand touching her lips, she could still feel his. She could still feel the warmth and the sensation she felt when their lips touched. She was able to see into Inuyasha's room a little and she just sat there, looking in. At first she was able to watch him move about his room, and every time he passed by his window he would look out at hers. All she thought about now, was that something about him made her melt when she felt the connection, the tingle that went down her spine, the feeling in the pit of her stomach. It haunted her like a pleasantly bad dream. She wanted to feel it again, but was unsure how she truly felt. She thought she liked him, but she wasn't sure if it was the right kind of like.  
>"I don't think I would be feeling this way if it was that kind of like…" She muttered to herself, Natsumi's voice breaking the silence that filled her room made Chunky look up at her then back out the window.<p>

**Authors Note:  
>Ahhhhhhhhh, yeah I have a feeling some people may not be too happy with this chapter. :p <strong>

**Please let me know what you think so far. (anything I should change?)**

Tralala. Okay finished with this chapter!

Some may like the new changes, I am not really sure who likes it anyways… lol you people must like it somewhat, or it is able to keep your attention to an extent because this is already the ninth chapter :p

Anyways, like I have stated before, I am working on the next chapter so I could post the totally new chapters.

Please keep reading and reviewing and telling me if you like it or not, and if you think of any changes… well, you know… let me know xD

Happy reading!


	10. Chapter 10

**Recap:  
><strong>_After what seemed like a week, but in reality was only an hour and a half, Natsumi left to go home. Once she got home she just went straight up stairs, she didn't really talk to her mother or eat a whole lot at dinner. Natsumi was just so shocked by what happened only a few hours ago. The rest of the night she just sat on her window bench. She sat in a way where she could see Inuyasha's bedroom window, but she was mainly hidden. She sat there staring out in the night with a hand up to her lips; they were still tingling from earlier. She remembered that tingle that went down her spine as their lips met. Something about him made her melt when she felt the connection._

"_Whoa…" Was all she could think._

**Chapter 10**

Natsumi walked to school with Inuyasha like always. Everything was the same minus inside Natsumi's mind. She had so many questions. Mainly "Why." Today there was no music because she accidently left her iPod at home so they just walked along in silence. Their usual coach came back finally and when he did, Inuyasha's and the team's practices became even more intense. When the trio would walk home, it would always be quiet because they were so tired. Natsumi was just glad that she could stop running laps now. Although you can say that there was a part of her that was starting to miss running the laps with the team as they were warming up.

Inuyasha cleared his throat and got Natsumi's attention.  
>"We have a meet today you know." Inuyasha said while looking forward as he spoke.<br>"Oh yeah, I heard Coach talking about it yesterday."  
>Inuyasha nodded. "Yeah."<br>"Cool!" Natsumi smiled. Inuyasha looked over at her out of the corner of his eye.  
>"You are going to be there right?"<br>Natsumi looked up at him, "duh, I promised you didn't I?" Inuyasha nodded. "Plus this is the first one of the season right?" Inuyasha nodded again. "Then I am definitely not going to miss it." Natsumi grinned. "This is going to be my first time attending one too." Inuyasha chuckled and nodded his head for the third time.  
>"Good."<p>

Time went by and she was on the field. Later on Kagome and Sango were going to meet up with her. Sango didn't have practice and Kagome was super excited after hearing about the meet. Natsumi was by Inuyasha holding his water while he stretched. Only a couple of others were stretching with him. They all talked mainly about the events that they were going to be in. It turned out that Inuyasha and Matt were doing the most events. All of a sudden Natsumi heard her name being called along with Inuyasha's. They turned around and smiled when they saw Sango and Kagome in the stands. Natsumi waved at them and turned to Inuyasha handing him back his drink.  
>"Well, if I am not needed for anything else, I am going to go join them." Inuyasha nodded and took a drink. Natsumi turned around and headed towards where her friends were. She motioned them to come down the stairs. At first they were hesitant, "it's okay, I asked Coach and he said if it is only the two of you and if I do my team manager duties, its okay." The girls cheered and hopped down to where Natsumi was. They all talked a while and Sango noticed that the race was about to begin. They watched the guys take off, after a couple of laps they began to talk amongst themselves again. Periodically they would watch. When the final lap was announced they all turned their attention to the track. Inuyasha took first then a few seconds someone from a different school took second and third was Matt. Natsumi got up and took waters and towels to the two boys.<br>"Wow, you guys! That was cool!" Natsumi beamed. Inuyasha just let out a snort and Natsumi gave him a confused expression.  
>"Thanks, but that was the easy event." Matt said.<br>"Oh really? They why aren't there more competitors?" Matt continued to explain to Natsumi while it seemed as if Inuyasha went off to sulk.

After a while Inuyasha and other team members were talking to the coach so the three girls went back to talking. Kagome turned to Natsumi with a smile. "So how have you and Inuyasha doing? You guys seem to have gotten a lot closer."  
>Natsumi's cheeks turned pink when she remembered their first kiss, well the kiss he stole from her. "Uhm, well I am not sure. I am really confused."<br>"Why?"  
>"Well, a few weeks ago we were talking, well okay I think we were actually arguing, but I am not sure over what. He got mad and then he just kissed me. And now he acts as if nothing happened."<br>"WHAT?" The other two screamed. They got looks from people around them. Natsumi sighs and looks out onto the track, unintentionally looking for her neighbor.  
>"I am just so confused. He always makes me nervous and anxious at the same time. Yet I also feel calm and relaxed. How can I be feeling four opposite feelings and emotions all at the same time?" Natsumi slumped over, Kagome and Sango shared a knowing look.<br>"Have you ever thought of going for it?" Sango asked.  
>"What?" It was Natsumi's turn to be startled.<br>"Well, it just explains why he looked so jealous earlier." Sango said.  
>"I am still not following at all."<br>"Yeah, it is a very distinct expression that he gets when he is feeling a bit jealous." Kagome said.  
>"…" Natsumi looked at Inuyasha then back at the two. "When?"<br>"Right after the first race, when you started to talk more to that other guy." Sango informed.  
>"But why would he be jealous?"<br>Kagome smiled, "because he likes you and you are important to him." Natsumi choked a little on her water when Kagome said this. "Trust me! I know a thing or two about that boy."  
>Natsumi scoffed, "no, trust me. I really don't think so…"<br>Kagome just smiled and shook her head. "Then explain why he has been intensely staring at you for the past few minutes?"  
>Natsumi suddenly tensed up and became self-conscious. Her cheeks pink as she slowly turned her head where she can now see Inuyasha. When she saw him he crossed his arms and kept staring. She was so startled she could not look away for a few minutes. She could just feel his eyes bore themselves into her soul. Thankfully the announcer announced the next event which got his attention and he started walking back over to his starting blocks. Natsumi quickly turned to Kagome. "What the heck?" She simply smiled back at Natsumi.<br>"Like I told you, he either really cares about you, thinks you are really important, or he just plain flat out likes you."  
>"A-are you su—"<br>"NATSUMI!" The trip jumped when Inuyasha shouted her name. They looked at him like deer in head lights. All three with blushes on their cheeks except for Natsumi, she was just bright red.  
>"Watch me! Only me, I will prove to you that I am amazing." Inuyasha yelled. The other guys he was competing with were looking at him with amazement. She noticed the other guys on the team started to talk amongst themselves and look over at her. She looked back at Inuyasha, he was expecting a response but all she could do was nod her head. Only then he got down on his starting block to wait for the starting gun to go off. She was just left speechless.<br>"Wow, well he is a lot more vocal about things now…" Kagome said.  
>"I wonder if some of Miroku's personality wore off on him…" Sango cut in while Kagome finished.<br>"It really appears to be that way."

The meet ended with Natsumi only watching Inuyasha when he was racing. For some reason she could not shake her blush and also shake the feeling as if someone had been watching her the whole time. She came to the conclusion that it was someone in the stands, if there was someone that is. Natsumi was also getting really frustrated because she could not act normal now. She was always thinking about Inuyasha. _"Kagome said that I may have a crush on him. But that is crazy, I have had crush's before and it never felt like this. Is it more than a crush then? Do I actually like him? He is the first person here that has been able to break down my wall…"  
><em>"Were here!" Inuyasha said excitedly. The whole team decided to eat out to celebrate their victory. So they ended up at some hole in the wall Italian place. Natsumi grumbled to herself for her dislike in Italian food but didn't utter a word. They sat in a big banquet room that held a long large table. The coaches were down at one end so they can discuss next meet's plans. Natsumi was going to sit by another team manager and Matt, but Inuyasha called her over to where he was sitting. "No, sit here."  
>"Why? Don't you want to sit with your other team mates? You can see me anytime."<br>"Duh, that's what I am doing. You are on the team too right? Or did you forget that all of a sudden?"  
>The coaches ordered all of the food. Pastas, lasagnas, Italian dish this, Italian dish that. Natsumi's head was about to explode with all of the Italian dishes. Thankfully the coach ordered an anti-pasta salad too. Natsumi was relieved when she heard the salad being ordered. Out of all Italian food, she could actually enjoy that salad the most.<p>

There was idle chatter amongst everyone. Inuyasha talked to Natsumi and the guy across from him. Down in the middle was Matt and the other manager. Matt and she had a very small conversation due to the distance, noise and the Inuyasha factor. Once the food came the conversations dulled down to a quiet roar. The team members all ate the pasta and other dishes. Natsumi would always get more of the salad as it was passed by her.  
>"Is that all you are going to eat?" Inuyasha asked her, slightly annoyed.<br>Natsumi looked at him and nodded apologetically. "Yeah, I don't—"  
>"No way! Here!"<br>He grabs a plate full of pasta and serves Natsumi a small portion. Natsumi sighs but then gets tense when she sees him grab another plate. "Hey Inuyasha, are you really that hungry?" Asked some other team member named Blake.  
>"No…Well yeah, but no, this is for Natsumi. She only had salad on her plate."<br>"Oh! Well here! Hook her up!" The other guys chuckled and started passing down places of the other dishes.  
>"N-no guys, please—"<br>"No way, you have to have some of this awesome food!"  
>Natsumi grumbled.<p>

After they finished dumping a small portion of each dish on her plate, she ever so politely finished her food. Needless to say she didn't talk the rest of the night, other than thanking the coaches for the food. Inuyasha, Matt and her walked home. Matt was asking Inuyasha questions and he was actually responding back. As they walked up to Natsumi's house, her mother was getting out of her car. They started talking about the meet and other things.  
>"Well did you guys eat yet? I can make you something."<br>"No thanks mom, we already ate."  
>"Oh? Where at?"<br>"At Luigi's! It is the best Italian place around here."  
>Natsumi's mothers eyes softened and looked at Natsumi. "Oh I see…"<br>"Yeah, oh hey see ya tomorrow Inuyasha" she let out a small quiet burp and quickly covered her mouth while holding onto her tummy. "Mom, I'm going to bed, good night."  
>"Oh, yeah night…" Inuyasha said hesitantly, he was wondering what was going on between the mother and daughter.<br>He turned to her mother and asked, "Is something wrong?" They both watched Natsumi enter the house. Her mother turned around and smiled gently at him.  
>"Mmm, well everything is fine, except I wonder; did she eat anything at Luigi's?"<br>Inuyasha grunted, "She was only eating that anta pasto salad at first, then I helped her get more food so she had more to eat." Inuyasha said with a triumphant smile while crossing his arms.  
>"Oh-oh dear…"<br>"Why? What's wrong with that?" Inuyasha asked as her mother started to go into the house. Inuyasha followed her but paused on the porch when Natsumi's mother turned around.  
>"Uh, well you see…Natsumi really detests Italian food. She would rather get a bunch of shots or injections before having to eat Italian food. Sometimes spaghetti is okay, and she actually enjoys the anti-pasta salad. But sometimes her hating the food so much will actually make her physically sick. It's like her mind tells her body.<br>Inuyasha froze; a weird sound came out of his mouth. "I—I –I'm …"  
>"Don't worry dear, knowing Summer she probably didn't say anything or even try to say no. It is probably one of her few faults. When she is in a group of people that she is not too close to, she cannot help but be too polite sometimes."<br>"Oh my…"  
>"I said don't worry dear, now go home and rest. You did a great job today, also thank you for always walking home with her. See you in the morning?"<p>

All Inuyasha could do was nod. He turned away like a sad puppy. He felt horrible. He never wanted to hurt her. He even promised to protect her so she would never get hurt again. Once home all he could do was go to his window, pull up a chair and look up to her room. He wished his house's second floor was higher, but because the first floor sunk in, the house was lower. Her window was open and he could hear her shuffling around. He imagined she was changing. His mind was starting to wander and he caught himself. He cleared his throat and shook his head. "Buff." He heard. He looked up and saw Chunky in the window looking down at him. He smiled and shook his head again.  
>"Hey Chunks."<br>"Buff! Woof!" She responded back.  
>"Chunky, what are you …" It was Natsumi, she sounded different. She came to the window to pick up Chunky. Her eyes followed the gaze of her dogs and met Inuyasha's dark eyes. For some reason he stood up. He wanted to apologize but the look in her eyes stopped him. There was a new look. She nodded her head and picked up her pup and walked out of view.<br>"What was that expression?" He muttered to himself. He remained like that until her bedroom light went out. Only then, he allowed himself to go to sleep.

**Authors note:**

**Thanks for reading yet another chapter :3 I hope you all enjoyed this one as well  
>I had quite a bit of fun while writing it. It has also given me a lot of ideas for the next chapter <strong>

**Feedback and reviews are always accepted. **

**-Foxfaceish**


	11. Chapter 11

**Recap:  
><strong>_"Hey Chunks."  
>"Buff! Woof!" She responded back.<br>"Chunky, what are you …" It was Natsumi, she sounded different. She came to the window to pick up Chunky. Her eyes followed the gaze of her dogs and met Inuyasha's dark eyes. For some reason he stood up. He wanted to apologize but the look in her eyes stopped him. There was a new look. She nodded her head and picked up her pup and walked out of view.  
>"What was that expression?" He muttered to himself. He remained like that until her bedroom light went out. Only then, he allowed himself to go to sleep.<em>

**Chapter 11**

A few weeks after the first meet, Inuyasha came over in the morning as usual. He ate breakfast, she drank juice. He was about to tell her to actually eat something but he remembered the last time he told her to eat something. On their walk to school, he stops listening to her music and gets her attention.  
>"Hey, your mother called you Summer the other day. Is that like a nick name or something?"<br>Natsumi looked up at him with a bit of a smile. "Mmm, yeah. In a way I guess."  
>Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean in a way? Where do those names come from?"<br>"Meanings."  
>"What do you mean meanings?"<br>Natsumi giggled while watching Inuyasha get worked up. "My name." She wanted to see how far and long she can keep this up.  
>Inuyasha let out a frustrated grumble. "Good job, now you just made a full circle."<br>"I know, aren't circles great? They have no end and they can keep going and going and goi—"  
>"Alright! Enough. I get it; you don't want to tell me." Natsumi giggled and Inuyasha sighed.<br>"You're giving up already? Well no matter…you could always try to guess." She gave him a smile.  
>"Guess?"<br>"Yeah, using the clues I already gave you, try to guess where it comes from. But honestly I don't see any fun in that because I just told you already." Natsumi stuck out her tongue playfully.  
>Inuyasha thought for a few minutes. He mumbled under his breath and looked over at her. She just kept watching him.<br>"You said in a way it's a nick name. And it comes from a meaning?" Natsumi just nodded as he continued. "Oh, okay so I guess your name, Natsumi, has a meaning, or like a translation." He looked back over at her again.  
>"Ding ding ding! Your right."<br>"So your name means Summer?"  
>Natsumi bobbed her head back and forth, "kinda, the word natsu means summer, and mi is beautiful. My mom is into names with meaning. She has told me time and time again that she just couldn't name me Mary, or Susan, or any other name. She wanted one with meaning. So then she chose that one. She said that it fit perfectly considering the time I was born and all, saying that it really was a beautiful summer." Natsumi let out a bit of an embarrassed laugh. "Kind of silly huh…"<br>Inuyasha shook his head. "Nah, not really. Now that I think about it, a lot of names have meanings. And the ones that do usually have the most power."  
>Natsumi looked up at him, "huh?"<br>Inuyasha chuckled and shook his head. "Nothing."

They went back to listening to music while they finished up their walk from school. During math class, the two math groups decided to meet up in the library after school to work on their projects. Natsumi was able to leave practice early so she could meet them. She sat next to her partner and they started getting to work. About an hour later Inuyasha showed up too. He sat across from Natsumi and he begins to work on the assignment as well. He very quickly gets bored and starts messing with Natsumi. She would give him a stern look but all he would do was give her a genuine smile which she would instantly scoff at. Finally she took a piece of scratch paper and started scribbling on it. Then she passed the note to him.  
><em>"What are you doing?"<br>_He quickly writes his response and they continue for a while.  
><em>"I'm bored."<br>"You never act like this when we study at home."  
>"Well duh, I never show you I am bored because when we study together I can look at you and watch the faces you make while trying to solve a problem. I can also look around in your room when were at your house." <em>Natsumi blushed a little.  
><em>"So all those times you watch me… Wait, I make faces?!"<br>_Inuyasha chuckled, nodded and wrote his response. _"Yeah, it's kinda cute sometimes. Especially when you space out."  
>"Great…" <em>There was a pause before Inuyasha wrote back.  
><em>"About the other night…At Luigi's. Why didn't you say something?"<br>"What do you mean, that was a fun night."  
>"I can smell it when people are lying."<br>"You have a weird sense of smell then."  
>"You know what I mean."<br>_Natsumi got up from the table and whispered to the group, "Sorry, I have to use the restroom." The others nodded and Inuyasha watched her for a few seconds before following without saying anything.

Inuyasha was a few bookshelves behind her before he finally caught up to her. He grabbed her arm. "Hey." She turned around and looked at him.  
>"Yeah?"<br>"Why didn't you say anything? You mother told me…"  
>"Oh…"<br>"Yeah, so why didn't you say anything? I didn't mean to make you sick…or eat something you really hate."  
>"Why are you caring so much? Its fine, no big deal."<br>"Yeah it is, you got sick because of it!"  
>"You don't know that I got sick from it, plus if it was really a big issue I would have been more adamant over things. Plus why do you even care?"<br>Their whispers now becoming a little louder. Inuyasha looked at her. He was angry. She just looked at him with her arms crossed. As she was watching Inuyasha's face, she noted an expression that reminded her of the meet. _"Does he really think I am important? Does he really care about me? Well, his reactions right now point to yes…"_ She thought. She took a step back, her arms down at her side. She looked down for a second then back up at Inuyasha and when she saw the change in emotion on his face it startled her.  
>"Are you okay?" He asked. He had concern all over his face.<br>"Do…" Natsumi fought with herself. She wanted to ask but she was too embarrassed to say anything.  
>"Do?"<br>She crossed her arms again and looked to the side. Her cheeks pink with embarrassment. "Do you…" Her mind was going to war with her emotions. She just wanted to ask him so bad. "Do you care…a..." She couldn't ask him. Inuyasha took a step closer to her. She cleared her throat; he was making her nervous. She couldn't keep her emotions or thoughts contained. "I need to pee!" She blurted. She turned to walk away but only to get stopped by Inuyasha. This time, an arm rested on a shelf blocking the way to the bathroom.  
>"Ask what you were going to ask. Don't just blurt out nonsense." He looked down at her and paused. "What were you going to say?"<br>Natsumi leaned up against the shelf, crossed her arms and looked away. She sighed and mustered everything in her to give her the will power. "Do you…care about…me?" She mumbled. She looked up at him from the corner of her eye.  
>"Even though I have excellent hearing, nothing could have heard that mumble…" Natsumi sighed. Her eyes closed and she asked again, just a little bit louder this time. She opened an eye and his expression made her blush harder.<p>

It was just a simple smile, a kind smile; one that she has not really seen from him before. "Yeah, I do. Is it just now taking you this long to figure it out? Man, Kagome said I was dense."  
>Natsumi ignored his last comment and just asked why. He paused and just looked at her. "Well for starters, there is just something about you that attracts me. I don't know every single detail of your past, but you have been betrayed by a lot of people. I care about you and I want to always be there to protect you in a lot of ways. And also in a lot of ways, we are the same."<br>"How do you know I was betrayed? Did Kagome and Sango tell you?!" Natsumi started to get upset. "Do you only care about me out of sympathy? Because if so, I don't need it; I don't need false leads or false hopes."

Inuyasha let out a smirk and shook his head. He ducked his head down so his eyes were low enough to look at her eye to eye. "No, plus I only found out a few days after the meet. Kagome told me a little and I found out a little more about you from you mom after Luigi's and what not." Natsumi looked down quickly and back up, she was about to say something but he cut her off. "But from the very beginning, I could just tell that you have gone through a lot. And you were also interesting." Inuyasha smirked.  
>Natsumi was just caught being confused and speechless. She was so caught up in the moment and caught up in their closeness. Inuyasha just looked into her eyes.<br>"I still have a hard time saying things like that…but I always mean what I say." Despite Inuyasha's expression, he too was battling his own emotions. And now at this point he could not control himself any longer. He leaned forward slowly. His empty hand placed itself on her cheek, his thumb stroking her cheek a little. He leaned in a little more and grazed his lips with hers. Her lips soft against his. Within the second his lips touched hers, he backed away only to claim a full kiss. Natsumi's emotions were haywire now. She just finally managed to comprehend that Inuyasha actually cares for her and it wasn't based on sympathy. It wasn't out of have to because she was his neighbor, but because he genuinely felt something. This kiss also showed her another side of him. His first kiss was full of power and passion with some type of possession. But now, it was pure passion, need, loyalty, want and comfort. She was so touched, so happy, anxious, so everything. A tear made its way to the surface and fell down her cheek. It hit Inuyasha's hand and he pulled away startled.  
>"W-what's wrong?!" His hands cupped both sides of her face and he made her look at him. Tears just started falling on their own accord. She just shook her head and smiled. Her legs gave out a bit and she started to slide down to the floor. He placed a hand on her knee that was propped up and squatted down in front of her.<br>"I'm fine, sorry…I am just …I am not sure, but I am really happy or something." Natsumi let out a soggy chuckle; Inuyasha smirked while letting out a chuckle of his own. She looked up at him for a moment. He paused from wiping her tears away to look back at her. They stole a few more kissed from each other; both of them completely forgetting that they were still in the library.

On their way home, Inuyasha told Natsumi that Kagome actually yelled at him when she found out about the first kiss. She called him thoughtless and careless; especially after she told him about what happened to Natsumi. Natsumi laughed and sighed. "Well yeah, I do have a lot of baggage and my past relationships with friends and other people have created my barrier now."  
>"Your old barrier to me." Inuyasha smirked. Natsumi just playfully pushed him.<br>"Yeah right, you were just the first person to actually find the hidden door without being told about it. Only because you have had that hidden door before."  
>"So, you didn't get sick after Luigi's?" He asked.<br>"Oh, yeah I totally did." Natsumi laughed at Inuyasha's expression, he was hoping for her to say 'just kidding' or something. "I'm not kidding." Inuyasha's expression became depressed and it just made her laugh more. "Don't worry, I am fine." Inuyasha shook his head and gave a smile after playfully knocking her on the head.

**Authors note:**

**Wow! I cannot believe that I got two reviews and comments in a row! It really made me speed up on my updating :3**

**This chapter originally was going to be super long, but I decided to cut it in half :3**

**Anyways! Please read and review and tell me what you think! :3 more comments = more quick updates. And it also equals to better content. **


	12. Note 4 For The Readers

**Yet another author's note.**

Hey hey hey.

Just letting you guys know that I have not abandoned this story, but I have been in the middle of moving (YAY) had a death in the family, sibling actually. (BOO) School started up again, I needed only one last class to finish my degree, but had problems with the class, so now I have to wait for next semester. (ARRGH)

SO! With all of this said, you can expect to have an update within a few weeks. The current chapter I have that is typed is just about done. I just need to finish the ending of it and tweak some of the details. :3

So please be a little bit more patient for this next chapter, I do have to say though, it's not my favorite chapter, but I am working my hardest on it. And unfortunately I have a feeling that the chapter after this one is also going to be blah too. Sorry so sorry, but as you can imagine, I am having a bit of difficulty writing.

Just wanted to keep my readers updated :3 and thanks again for reading (and reviewing for those who do.)

Yours truly  
>-foxfaceish<p> 


	13. Important Must Read Please

Sorry, yes I know, "ANOTHER authors note?!"  
>WELL! Just so you guys know, I have been revamping my story. And I have been editing each chapter, almost like one chapter a day. I am on a crazy roll right now! (and whoopsie I killed a bottle of wine while working on editing the last chapter. :p)<p>

Anyways, I have been adding flashbacks and extra details so the story so it flows a lot better. The new chapters that I have added are titled 'New Chapter'…

As of right now, I have edited:

Chapter 1  
>Chapter 2<br>Chapter 3  
>Chapter 4<p>

Keep checking back because I will keep this note updated with the chapters I have updated.

: ) thanks for reading guys!

-foxfaceish  
>November 30, 2012<p> 


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